Huge needs remain 100 days after typhoon Yolanda

MANILA — The United Nations warned on Saturday that millions of survivors of the country's deadliest typhoon were still without adequate shelter 100 days after the disaster.

"The authorities, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, and the Filipino people should be commended for the pace of progress.... But we can not afford to be complacent," UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for the Philippines, Luiza Carvalho said.

" The need for durable shelter for millions of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed is critical," she said in a statement.

Yolanda tore across the central islands on November 8 last year, killing 6,200 people and leaving nearly 2,000 others missing.

It also destroyed or severely damaged 1.1 million houses, leaving more than four million people homeless.

Carvalho said millions of jobs were also destroyed or impaired after Haiyan tore down or damaged 33 million coconut trees, flooded fields with salt water, and swept away or wrecked 30,000 fishing vessels.

Apart from addressing food and health needs, the international aid effort provided tents and tarpaulin shelters to half a million families, while emergency employment programs pumped money into the devastated local economies, the UN said.

Many of the devastated areas rely on subsistence fishing and farming and are on the path of most of the 20 or so typhoons and storms that strike the Asian country each year.