LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
•The United States said Monday it is providing $20 million in immediate aid to the Philippines. The U.S. Agency for International Development said the aid will be used to provide emergency shelter, food, relief commodities, water and sanitation.
•Emily Ortega, 21 and about to give birth, said she clung to a post to survive after the evacuation center she fled to was devastated by the 20-foot storm surge. She reached safety at the airport, where she gave birth to a baby girl, Bea Joy Sagales, whose arrival drew applause from the military medics who assisted in the delivery.
•At U.N. climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, the envoy from the Philippines broke down in tears as he described waiting in agony for news from relatives caught in the massive storm’s path. “In solidarity with my countrymen, who are struggling to find food back home … I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate,” said the envoy, Naderev “Yeb” Sano.
•Scientists say nature and man together cooked up the disaster that has devastated parts of the Philippines. The Philippines sit in the middle of a region that gets some of the biggest typhoons because of vast expanses of warm water that act as fuel. But meteorologists say poverty and a tremendous growth in population, much of it in vulnerable coastal areas with poor construction, also played a role.
— Associated Press
Thousands of typhoon survivors swarmed the airport here today seeking a flight out, but only a few hundred made it, leaving behind a shattered, rain-lashed city short of food and water and littered with countless bodies.
Meanwhile, in southern China, the storm killed at least eight people and inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to farming and fishing industries.
Four days after Typhoon Haiyan struck the eastern Philippines, only a trickle of assistance has made to affected communities. Authorities estimated the storm killed 10,000 or more across a vast swath of the country. Millions are without shelter or food.
Tacloban, a city of about 220,000 people on Leyte island, bore the full force of the winds and the tsunami-like storm surges. Most of the city is in ruins, a tangled mess of destroyed houses, cars and trees. Malls, garages and shops have all been stripped of food and water by hungry residents.
Just after dawn this morning, two Philippine Air Force C-130s arrived at its destroyed airport along with several commercial and private flights. More than 3,000 people who camped out at the building surged onto the tarmac past a broken iron fence to get on the aircraft. Just a dozen soldiers and several police held them back.
Mothers raised their babies high above their heads in the rain, in hopes of being prioritized. One lady in her thirties lay on a stretcher, shaking uncontrollably. Only a small number managed to board.
“I was pleading with the soldiers. I was kneeling and begging because I have diabetes,” said Helen Cordial, whose house was destroyed in the storm. “Do they want me to die in this airport? They are stone hearted.”
Most residents spent Monday night under pouring rain wherever they could — in the ruins of destroyed houses, in the open along roadsides and shredded trees. Some slept under tents brought in by the government or relief groups.
Local doctors said they were desperate for medicines. Beside the ruined airport tower, at a small makeshift clinic with shattered windows, army and air force medics said they had treated around 1,000 people since the typhoon for cuts, bruises, lacerations, deep wounds.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Air force Capt. Antonio Tamayo. “We need more medicine. We cannot give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none.”
International aid groups and militaries are rushing assistance to the region, but little has arrived yet. Government officials and police and army officers have all been caught up in the disaster themselves, hampering coordination.
The USS George Washington aircraft carrier was expected to arrive off the coast in about two days, according to the Pentagon.
Joselito Caimoy, a 42-year-old truck driver, was one of the lucky ones at Tacloban airport. He was able to get his wife, son and 3-year-old daughter on a flight out. They embraced in a tearful goodbye, but Caimoy stayed behind to guard what’s left of his home and property.
“There is no water, no food,” he said. “People are just scavenging in the streets. People are asking food from relatives, friends. The devastation is too much … the malls, the grocery stories have all been looted. They’re empty. People are hungry. And they (the authorities) cannot control the people.”
The dead litter the streets or remain trapped in the debris.
At a small naval base, eight corpses — including a baby — were submerged in water brought in by the storm. Officers had yet to move them, saying they had no body bags or electricity to preserve them.
The official death remained at 942. However, with shattered communications and transportation links, the final count was likely days away, and presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said “we pray” it does not surpass 10,000.
In China, hardest hit was the southern island of Hainan, where the approaching storm wrenched a cargo ship from its moorings Sunday, drove it out to sea and prevented rescue attempts by speed boat and helicopter. Three bodies were recovered and four crew members remained missing, China National Radio said.
Four other people in Hainan were confirmed dead today, including two people hit by falling objects, according to China National Radio, which said the storm caused up to $700 million in damage to agricultural, forestry, poultry and fishing industries there.
An additional person drowned in Guangxi, China News Service reported.
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