USA TODAY International Edition
PHILIPPINES: AFTERMATH OF TYPHOON HAIYAN
Security a concern for supply convoys
Help is on the way to thousands of people left hungry, homeless or injured after Typhoon Haiyan attacked the Philippines, wiping away buildings, roads and entire cities.
Pope Francis sent what the Vatican called initial assistance, $ 150,000, to help those left homeless.
The United States has committed $ 20 million and sent 230 Marines and sailors for search- and- rescue work. Several ships are on the way to provide humanitarian assistance, supplies and medical care.
The biggest needs are food, water and shelter. “We are running into rising despair,” said Ned Olney, typhoon emergency team leader for Save the Children.
Relief has been slow because of the magnitude of devastation, isolation of the areas affected and growing security concerns, Olney said.
“The biggest challenge has been access,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippines National Red Cross.
He has 15 trucks headed from Manila to Tacloban, one of the areas hit hardest, on a 24- hour journey that includes a three- hour ferry ride. The trucks contain water tankers, gas and food to feed 10,000 people, he said.
Security is a growing concern as people face their third day without food and water, Gordon said. A hungry mob almost hijacked another aid convoy Sunday, he said.
So far, he said, the Red Cross has been able to serve hot food to only a few thousand people of the many thousands in need.
Olney said Save the Children has nine staff members in the Tacloban area on Leyte island who survived the storm, though their headquarters didn’t. He said the team is preparing for the arrival today or Wednesday of thousands of tarps, tents, blankets, buckets, chlorine tablets and more.
World Vision has about 50 workers throughout the central part of the country, according to spokesman Jeff Lamigo in Manila. He said the group, which specializes in helping children after disasters, has 5,000 shelter kits and blankets it is trying to distribute.
One of the first responders for World Vision, MaryAnn Zamora, sent an e- mail from Tacloban on Sunday describing her trip to the city.
“Two hours by van and eight hours by foot, over electrical posts and passing by dead people along the way,” she wrote. “People here are hungry. Me and my fellow aid workers arrived safely in Tacloban, but the way we took last night looks like an endless path of misery. There are survivors approaching me, all are in tears, to ask for favors to send ( text messages) for their worried relatives.”