Rescue workers from Japan to Singapore are rushing to the Philippines after Super Typhoon Haiyan flattened buildings and unleashed flooding that may have killed as many as 10,000 people, and as a new storm approaches.
Haiyan weakened into a tropical depression as it reached Vietnam yesterday, with no reports of casualties. A tropical depression is threatening Mindanao island in the southern Philippines and may pass through areas hit by Haiyan, prompting the weather bureau to issue the lowest storm warning in its four-level alert system.
Japan is coordinating with the Philippine government to send its Japan Disaster Relief Medical Team to the affected area as early as today. The Singapore Civil Defence Force sent a team to assist in the rescue effort.
The United Nations said it is stepping up operations in the Philippines given the “devastating” impact of Haiyan since it made landfall on Nov. 8. Much of the destruction was concentrated in and around Tacloban city, the capital of Leyte province. The difficulty in reaching the hardest-hit areas means the number of casualties has yet to be confirmed, said the Red Cross in Geneva, which cited Philippine authorities as saying the death toll may reach 10,000.
“The United States is already providing significant humanitarian assistance, and we stand ready to further assist the government’s relief and recovery efforts,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
The U.S. Department of Defense will assist in the relief efforts, which will include maritime search and rescue and helicopter lift support, it said in a statement. The British Embassy in Manila announced an assistance package of up to the equivalent of 414 million pesos ($9.5 million).
“Access remains a key challenge as some areas are still cut off from relief operations,” the UN office in Manila said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “Unknown numbers of survivors do not have basic necessities such as food, water and medicines and remain inaccessible for relief operations, as roads, airports and bridges were destroyed or covered in wreckage.”
President Benigno Aquino traveled to Tacloban yesterday to view the aftermath of the year’s most powerful cyclone. Television images from the city showed bodies on the streets and floating in the sea, homes reduced to rubble, structures with their roofs ripped off and roads blocked by felled trees.
While the official death toll posted by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council was 255 as of 6 a.m. in Manila, the number is expected to rise as the government gets reports from provinces now out of reach, Major Rey Balido, spokesman for the disaster-monitoring agency, said in a text message. Almost 9.7 million Filipinos, or a tenth of the population, were affected by Haiyan, the agency said.
“We can just for the moment relay that according to the national authorities the dead could reach 10,000,” David Pierre Maquet, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said by phone from Geneva. “It could be close to the reality, but the trouble is in some western highlands there is no access so nobody can confirm these estimates.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at [email protected]; Simeon Bennett in Geneva at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at [email protected]; Lars Klemming at [email protected]
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[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
A resident stands amongst a pile of debris washed inland in Tacloban, central Philippines, on November 10, 2013.
A resident stands amongst a pile of debris washed inland in Tacloban, central Philippines, on November 10, 2013. Photographer: Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
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[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images
Volunteers pack relief goods bound for ares hard-hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan at a government warehouse in Manila, Philippines, on November 9, 2013.
Volunteers pack relief goods bound for ares hard-hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan at a government warehouse in Manila, Philippines, on November 9, 2013. Photographer: Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images
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[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team via Getty Images
Super Typhoon Haiyan moves over the central Philippines on November 8, 2013.
Super Typhoon Haiyan moves over the central Philippines on November 8, 2013. Source: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team via Getty Images
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[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
Residents walk past destruction along a road in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 10, 2013 after Super Typhoon Haiyan swept over the country.
Residents walk past destruction along a road in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 10, 2013 after Super Typhoon Haiyan swept over the country. Photographer: Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
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[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images
Residents walk past the debris of destroyed houses in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 9, 2013.
Residents walk past the debris of destroyed houses in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 9, 2013. Photographer: Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images
Haiyan weakened into a tropical depression as it reached Vietnam yesterday, with no reports of casualties. A tropical depression is threatening Mindanao island in the southern Philippines and may pass through areas hit by Haiyan, prompting the weather bureau to issue the lowest storm warning in its four-level alert system.
Japan is coordinating with the Philippine government to send its Japan Disaster Relief Medical Team to the affected area as early as today. The Singapore Civil Defence Force sent a team to assist in the rescue effort.
The United Nations said it is stepping up operations in the Philippines given the “devastating” impact of Haiyan since it made landfall on Nov. 8. Much of the destruction was concentrated in and around Tacloban city, the capital of Leyte province. The difficulty in reaching the hardest-hit areas means the number of casualties has yet to be confirmed, said the Red Cross in Geneva, which cited Philippine authorities as saying the death toll may reach 10,000.
“The United States is already providing significant humanitarian assistance, and we stand ready to further assist the government’s relief and recovery efforts,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
The U.S. Department of Defense will assist in the relief efforts, which will include maritime search and rescue and helicopter lift support, it said in a statement. The British Embassy in Manila announced an assistance package of up to the equivalent of 414 million pesos ($9.5 million).
“Access remains a key challenge as some areas are still cut off from relief operations,” the UN office in Manila said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “Unknown numbers of survivors do not have basic necessities such as food, water and medicines and remain inaccessible for relief operations, as roads, airports and bridges were destroyed or covered in wreckage.”
President Benigno Aquino traveled to Tacloban yesterday to view the aftermath of the year’s most powerful cyclone. Television images from the city showed bodies on the streets and floating in the sea, homes reduced to rubble, structures with their roofs ripped off and roads blocked by felled trees.
While the official death toll posted by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council was 255 as of 6 a.m. in Manila, the number is expected to rise as the government gets reports from provinces now out of reach, Major Rey Balido, spokesman for the disaster-monitoring agency, said in a text message. Almost 9.7 million Filipinos, or a tenth of the population, were affected by Haiyan, the agency said.
“We can just for the moment relay that according to the national authorities the dead could reach 10,000,” David Pierre Maquet, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said by phone from Geneva. “It could be close to the reality, but the trouble is in some western highlands there is no access so nobody can confirm these estimates.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at [email protected]; Simeon Bennett in Geneva at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at [email protected]; Lars Klemming at [email protected]
Enlarge image
[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
A resident stands amongst a pile of debris washed inland in Tacloban, central Philippines, on November 10, 2013.
A resident stands amongst a pile of debris washed inland in Tacloban, central Philippines, on November 10, 2013. Photographer: Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
Enlarge image
[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Volunteers pack relief goods bound for ares hard-hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan at a government warehouse in Manila, Philippines, on November 9, 2013.
Volunteers pack relief goods bound for ares hard-hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan at a government warehouse in Manila, Philippines, on November 9, 2013. Photographer: Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images
Enlarge image
[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Super Typhoon Haiyan moves over the central Philippines on November 8, 2013.
Super Typhoon Haiyan moves over the central Philippines on November 8, 2013. Source: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team via Getty Images
Enlarge image
[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Residents walk past destruction along a road in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 10, 2013 after Super Typhoon Haiyan swept over the country.
Residents walk past destruction along a road in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 10, 2013 after Super Typhoon Haiyan swept over the country. Photographer: Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images
Enlarge image
[h=3]Super Typhoon Haiyan[/h]
Residents walk past the debris of destroyed houses in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 9, 2013.
Residents walk past the debris of destroyed houses in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte in the Philippines, on November 9, 2013. Photographer: Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images