Typhoon Haiyan leaves 1,774 dead, ‘hideous’ destruction

November 12, 2013 – PHILIPPINES -  The Philippines struggled to bury the dead and get food, water and medicine to the living Tuesday, four days after Super Typhoon Haiyan claimed untold lives and flattened countless buildings. “Right now, we don’t have enough water,” typhoon survivor Roselda Sumapit told CNN in Tacloban, a city of more than 200,000 that was flattened by the storm. What they can get may not be clean, she said — but she added, “We still drink it, because we need to survive.” The government’s confirmed death toll was 1,774 early Tuesday, said Jose Lampe Cuisa Jr., the Philippine ambassador to the United States. The storm has injured 2,487 more, and displaced 660,000 people from their homes. Government officials have said they fear the final toll may be as many as 10,000. Corpses — some crudely covered, others left exposed to the burning sun — added another hellish element to survival in Tacloban, the capital of the southern island province of Leyte.

“We have bodies in the water, bodies on the bridges, bodies on the side of the road,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said authorities there have confirmed 250 deaths and expect that toll to climb. “A lot of bodies were mixed up with all the rubble and debris, and we’re getting reports also of some houses that were buried. And we see some bodies floating,” Romualdez said. Another 14 people were reported to have died in Vietnam, where the storm made landfall after hitting the Philippines, the country’s National Search and Rescue Committee reported early Tuesday. Another four were missing and 81 hurt, it said. And there were at least five storm-related deaths in southern China, where heavy rains caused flooding, destroyed houses and damaged farmland, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. In the Philippines, troops and aid organizations battled blocked roads to deliver help and search for survivors in the splintered wreckage of homes.

Tomoo Hozumi, the Philippines representative of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, said food, shelter, clean water and basic sanitation were “in a severe shortage” early Tuesday. “The situation on the ground is very hideous,” he told CNN’s The Situation Room. The Philippine government reported early Tuesday that 2.5 million people needed food aid, including nearly 300,000 pregnant women or new mothers. “Our house got demolished. My father died after being hit by falling wooden debris,” one woman told the Philippine television network ANC. “We are calling for your help. If possible, please bring us food. We don’t have anything to eat.” International aid was beginning to work its way to the stricken islands. But Martin Romualdez, the area’s congressman, said authorities need help clearing roads where power lines, trees and whole houses are “literally strewn across the pavement of the highway.” Romualdez, the cousin of Tacloban’s mayor, said airdrops may be needed to reach towns beyond Tacloban. “We can’t wait. People have gone three days without any clean water, food and medication,” he told CNN’s Piers Morgan Live. “People are getting desperate. There’s an exodus out of the storm-ravaged areas. People are just trying to make their way out, and it’s causing a big, big jam on the main arteries that are used to get to these people.” –CNN (excerpt)