TACLOBAN, Philippines - Dazed survivors begged for help and scavenged for food, water and medicine on Monday after Super Typhoon Yolanda (international code name: Haiyan) killed an estimated 10,000 in the central Philippines.
President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity and deployed hundreds of soldiers in the coastal city of Tacloban to quell looting.
"In the coming days, be assured: help will reach you faster and faster," he said in a televised address.
"My appeal to you all is: remaining calm, praying, cooperating with, and assisting one another are the things that will help us to rise from this calamity."
The huge scale of death and destruction from Friday's storm become clearer as reports emerged of thousands of people missing and images showed apocalyptic scenes in one town that has not been reached by rescue workers.
Philippine authorities have been overwhelmed, their efforts to quickly deliver aid hamstrung by the destruction of airports, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Many areas remained cut off from any relief efforts on Monday, leaving bodies to rot in the humid atmosphere and survivors little choice but to rummage through the debris for food, water and other essentials.
Even in Tacloban, the base for relief operations in Leyte, bodies remained littered through the streets and the stench of rotting flesh hung thick in the air.
The scale of the disaster continued to unfold as more remote areas were surveyed, with aerial photos of Samar island where Haiyan first made landfall showing whole districts of coastal towns reduced to piles of splintered wood.
One of the most powerful storms ever recorded, typhoon Haiyan leveled Basey, a seaside town in Samar province about 10 km (6 miles) across a bay from Tacloban in Leyte province, where at least 10,000 people were killed, according to officials.
About 2,000 people were missing in Basey, said the governor of Samar province.
"The situation is bad, the devastation has been significant. In some cases the devastation has been total," Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras told a news conference.
The United Nations said officials in Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the storm on Friday, had reported one mass grave of 300-500 bodies. More than 600,000 people were displaced by the storm across the country and some have no access to food, water, or medicine, the UN says.
Haiyan's sustained winds when it hit Samar reached 315 kilometers (195 miles) an hour, making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year and one of the most powerful ever recorded.
Flattened by surging waves and monster winds up to 235 kph, Tacloban, 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Manila, was relying almost entirely for supplies and evacuation on just three military transport planes flying from nearby Cebu city.
Dozens of residents clamored for help at the airport gates.
Relief cannot come soon enough for Joan Lumbre-Wilson, 54, who was among a large crowd of people gathered around one of the few relief centers in Tacloban.
"We want an organized, coordinated brigade to collect the dead bodies, bring food and stop the looting," she said.
"It has been four days. We want water and food. We want someone who will help. We are emotionally drained and physically exhausted. There are many babies and children who need attention."
In a nationwide broadcast, Aquino said the government was focusing relief and assistance efforts on Samar and Leyte provinces, which acted as "funnels for the storm surges".
The declaration of a state of national calamity should quicken rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts.
It will also allow the government to use state funds for relief and rehabilitation and control prices. Aquino said the government had set aside 18.7 billion pesos ($432.97 million for rehabilitation.
US marines shocked at devastation
In Tacloban, dozens of American marines arrived on Monday afternoon aboard two US military C-130 transport planes packed with relief supplies, and expressed shock after receiving a bird's eye view of the carnage.
"Roads are impassable, trees are all down, posts are down, power is down... I am not sure what else is there. I am not sure how else to describe this destruction," Brigadier General Paul Kennedy, the commanding general of the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, told reporters.
The US troops were the most visible sign of a major international relief effort that had only just begun and could last for years, with some aid agencies likening the scale of the destruction to the 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed tens of thousands.
Blaming global warming for the typhoon's ferocity, a Philippine negotiator at UN climate talks in Warsaw pledged to fast until progress is made on tackling the environmental crisis.
"In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days... I will now commence a voluntary fasting," envoy Naderev Sano said as the 12-day talks got underway.
Adding to concerns was a looming storm in the Pacific Ocean that threatened to dump heavy rain across Leyte and other devastated areas.
The depression is expected to hit land on the southern island of Mindanao late Tuesday, then move across the central islands of Bohol, Cebu, Negros and Panay, which all suffered typhoon damage, weather forecaster Connie Dadivas told AFP.
Wall of water
Three days after the typhoon made landfall, residents of Tacloban told terrifying accounts of being swept away by a wall of water, revealing a city that had been hopelessly unprepared for a storm of Haiyan's almost unprecedented power.
Haiyan generated waves up to five meters (16 feet) high that surged inland like a tsunami, the walls of water destroying nearly everything in their path along huge stretches of coastlines throughout the central band of the archipelago.
Most of the damage and deaths were caused by waves that inundated towns, washed ships ashore and swept away villages in scenes reminiscent of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Jean Mae Amande, 22, said she was washed several kilometers from her home by the surge of water. The current ripped her out to sea before pushing her back to shore where she was able to cling to a tree and grab a rope thrown from a boat.
An old man who had been swimming with her died when his neck was gashed by an iron roof, she said.
"It's a miracle that the ship was there," Amande said.
Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded, is estimated to have destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of structures in its path. The damage to the coconut- and rice-growing region was expected to amount to more than 3 billion pesos ($69 million), Citi Research said in a report, with "massive losses" for private property.
Bodies litter the streets of Tacloban, rotting and swelling under the sun. People walked covering their noses with rags or old clothes to mask the stench.
International aid agencies said relief resources in the largely Roman Catholic Philippines were stretched thin after a 7.2 magnitude quake in central Bohol province last month and displacement caused by a conflict with Muslim rebels in southern Zamboanga province.
Many foreign governments have pledged help, with Australia donating nearly US$10 million, while United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon promised UN humanitarian agencies would "respond rapidly to help people in need".
The United Nations Children's Fund sounded a loud alarm about the urgency of getting relief supplies into the disaster zones, with the organization estimating up to four million children could be affected.
Twenty-one countries pledged to send relief, including Indonesia, United States, Britain, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and Hungary, Aquino said.
The Italian bishops conference pledged 3 million euros in emergency aid, adding to $150,000 given by Pope Francis and 100,000 euro by Catholic charity Caritas. On Sunday, Pope Francis led thousands in a silent prayer outside St. Peter's Basilica for the victims.
Tacloban's administration appeared to be in disarray as city and hospital workers focused on saving their own families and securing food.
Operations were further hampered because roads, airports and bridges had been destroyed or were covered in wreckage.
Exasperation
Awelina Hadloc, 28, the owner of a convenience store, foraged for instant noodles at a warehouse that was almost bare from looting. She said her store had been washed away by a 3-meter (10-foot) storm surge.
"It is so difficult. It is like we are starting again," said Hadloc. "There are no more supplies in the warehouse and the malls."
Aquino, facing one of the biggest challenges of his three-year rule, deployed 800 soldiers and police to restore order in Tacloban after looters rampaged through several stores.
Aquino, who before the storm said the government was aiming for zero casualties, has shown exasperation at conflicting reports on damage and deaths. One TV network quoted him as telling the head of the disaster agency that he was running out of patience.
The official death toll is likely to climb rapidly once rescuers reach remote parts of the coast, such as Guiuan, a town in eastern Samar province with a population of 40,000 that was largely destroyed.
"The only reason why we have no reports of casualties up to now is that communications systems ... are down," said Colonel John Sanchez, posting on the Armed Forces Facebook page.
About 400 people were confirmed dead in Samar province, according to provincial governor Sharee Ann Tan. Baco, a city of 35,000 in Oriental Mindoro province, was 80 percent under water, the United Nations said.
US aid groups also launched a multimillion-dollar relief campaign. An official from one group, World Vision, said there were early reports that as much as 90 percent of northern Cebu had been destroyed. An aid team from Oxfam reported "utter destruction" in the northern-most tip of Cebu.
Security forces deployed to contain looters
Meanwhile, hundreds of Filipino police and soldiers were deployed to contain looters in and around Tacloban, after mobs ransacked a Red Cross aid convoy on Sunday and gangs roamed the streets stealing consumer goods such as televisions.
"We have sent substantial (forces) there and if we need to add some more, it won't be just the police but even the armed forces," civil defense office spokesman Reynaldo Balido said on ABS-CBN.
Haiyan swept out into the South China Sea on Saturday and hit Vietnam and China on Monday in a significantly weakened state, although still strong enough to uproot trees and tear roofs off hundreds of homes.
Thirteen people were killed and dozens hurt during heavy winds and storms in Vietnam as Haiyan approached the coast, state media reported, even though it had weakened substantially after hitting the Philippines.
Six people were reported dead in China.
The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending pattern of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters.
But if the death toll of more than 10,000 is correct, Haiyan would be the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the country, exceeding the 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami that killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people. ($1 = 43.1900 Philippine pesos)
(Additional Reuters reports from Rosemarie Francisco and Karen Lema in Manila, Ho Binh Minh in Hanoi and Phil Stewart and Charles Abbott in Washington)
source: interaksyon.com