Emergency supplies
began to trickle into areas in the central Philippines devastated a week
ago by Typhoon Haiyan, as officials worked to clear a logjam that has
left some survivors without food or medical aid.
While large
crowds seeking to leave thronged the airport at Tacloban city, which
bore the brunt of the storm, incoming military flights carried teams of
aid workers who started to fan out into affected areas as officials
sought to clear roads and bring in trucks to carry supplies from the
airport.
The government now has 35 trucks, forklifts and other
heavy equipment in the area to deliver supplies, collect bodies and
clear roads, with eight more to be deployed today, Presidential
Spokeswoman Abigail Valte told reporters in Manila.
“Producing and moving supplies is a daily challenge” and the
government is “exploring other ways” to deliver aid, Valte said. A
private cargo ship with five truckloads of supplies left Manila today
and should arrive in Tacloban on Sunday, she said.
Relief efforts
have been hindered by roads washed away or blocked by debris, a lack of
vehicles to transport aid from Tacloban airport and gridlock at
airstrips in Cebu, staging grounds for the relief operation. The typhoon
brought gale force winds and storm surges when it slammed into the
region on Nov. 8, with more than 3,600 people killed, the country’s
disaster agency said.
‘Logistical Nightmare’
More
flights are able today to take off from the air base in Cebu today, as
the military works to clear a backlog of supplies, Lieutenant General
Roy Deveraturda, chief of the central command of the Philippines Armed
Forces, said by phone.
“After several days struggling to get transport space for a
small medical team and supplies,” a team of six reached Tacloban,
Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement yesterday. “It’s a
logistical nightmare,” spokeswoman Baikong Mamid said by e-mail.
The
government is doing “everything it can,” President Benigno Aquino told
volunteers last night at an aid packing station in Manila. “We need to
speed things up,” Aquino said. “If this drags, people there could grow
desperate.”
Aid delivery has been hampered by a lack of
communications and electricity, he said. Aquino plans to travel to the
disaster area tomorrow.
Field hospitals are being set up in
Tacloban, alongside teams bringing water purifiers. The U.S. aircraft
carrier George Washington arrived to help with the delivery of supplies
and search and rescue.
Death Toll
The United Nations
said the typhoon killed at least 4,460 people, making it one of the
deadliest in Philippine history. Major Rey Balido, spokesman of the
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told reporters
today in Manila the death toll stood at 3,621. In its morning update,
the NDRRMC said 3,853 people were injured and 77 missing, with more than
9 million people affected, of whom 1.48 million were displaced.
Tacloban’s
airport remains packed with evacuees, said recent arrivals in Cebu.
“There are more people every day. It gets bigger,” said Liam Pido, 18, a
student who left on an Australian military aircraft along with 16
others in his extended family. “Uncountable. Can’t be counted.”
Supplies
including food and water are starting to reach communities near the
airport, said Liam’s 48-year-old mother Nona Pido. “Peace and order has
improved since the armies from different countries arrived,” she said.
The
UN High Commissioner for Refugees has 2,200 tents at Cebu airbase
waiting to be sent to Tacloban, supply officer Mario Pajarillaga said in
an interview. “The challenge is we don’t know how many flights they can
accommodate” into Tacloban, he said.
Night, Day
U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Paul Kennedy said the U.S. was bringing a generator to Tacloban to restore power.
“This
is day five of our effort,” Kennedy said in an interview with Bloomberg
Television. “From what I saw from the first day on Monday compared to
what you would see today, were you to come out here, it’s night and
day.”
The Philippines had received 5.4 billion pesos ($124
million) in international assistance as of noon today, Foreign Affairs
Spokesman Raul Hernandez said in an e-mail.
Japan will give a
further $20 million in emergency grant aid, its Foreign Ministry said in
a statement, adding to the $10 million announced earlier.
About 2,000 soldiers and policemen are in the Eastern
Visayas region following looting incidents in Leyte, Office of Civil
Defense Administrator Eduardo del Rosario said in Manila yesterday.
Eastern Visayas covers Leyte and Samar islands.
Better Mobilize
Still,
Aquino must better mobilize the military and police, said Ramon
Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral
Reform in Manila.
“He is running out of time and every minute
counts,” Casiple said by phone yesterday. “When he declared a state of
national calamity, people expected him to take charge,” he added. “This
event will define his presidency.”
Melba Villegas, 36, arrived on
a C-130 plane in Manila from Tacloban today with two teenage daughters,
and plans to find work near the capital. “My husband, my eight children
and I survived the 20-foot water from the sea holding on to felled
coconut trees and empty water containers,” she said, showing a big wound
in her head.
Fighting for Food
About 150 people are
trying to leave the town of Guiuan in East Samar province, said Rose
Waldeck, 55. Her family fled on board a U.S. aircraft with the help of
her American neighbor. “People there are getting hungry,” she said in
Cebu. “They’re all fighting for food, water, they are all homeless.”
Guiuan
suffered extensive damage with almost all buildings destroyed, Medecins
Sans Frontieres said yesterday. “The local hospital is also severely
damaged and not functional,” it said
Some ordinary people are
seeking to go into the area. Grace Pasagui, 45, has been waiting at the
Air Force headquarters in Manila since yesterday, hoping to get to the
town of Dagami in Leyte to check on her husband and four children. “We
have no word about our relatives there. We don’t know if they are still
alive,” a tearful Pasagui said.
“There have been criticisms,
which we accept,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said
yesterday in Manila. “We don’t deny that there have been shortcomings,
but these were due to severe constraints.”
To prevent hoarding,
the government has limited oil purchases to two liters per motorcycle
and 500 pesos worth for cars each day, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho
Petilla said yesterday in Manila.
Economic Growth
Philippine
economic growth this quarter may slow to a range of 4.1 percent to 5.9
percent as a result of the storm, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio
Balisacan said in a mobile-phone message yesterday. An estimated 0.3 to
0.8 percentage point impact of Haiyan may cap gross domestic product
expansion this year at 6.5 percent to 7 percent, still within the
government’s target, Balisacan said.
The benchmark Manila stock index rose 0.3 percent today, with the peso slipping 0.2 percent against the U.S. dollar to 43.65.
