Relief efforts ramped up

Spearheaded by a US aircraft carrier group, foreign relief efforts have stepped up a gear in storm-devastated Philippines eight days after Super Typhoon Haiyan left thousands dead and millions homeless.

According to the United Nations, death toll as of Friday was about 3,600. In Tacloban City, more than 356,000 evacuees were staying in dirty and cramped evacuation centres in the province after Haiyan triggered tsunami-like waves flattened their homes. Yesterday, the Philippine government identified an eight-hectare relocation site for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

The lot is owned by the city government of Tacloban, the capital of Leyte province, according to Eduardo Del Rosario, head of the national disaster relief agency.

“We have found a relocation site to put up houses for the displaced,” Eduardo Del Rosario, head of the national disaster relief agency, told reporters in Manila. “We will start to level the ground tomorrow.”

Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said in Tacloban City, capital of the worst-hit Leyte province, that trucks carrying supplies had reached 30 out of 40 towns in the province.

Workers with chainsaws cut up toppled trees around the city hall while trucks hauled away bodies and debris. The clearing operations went on late into the night using portable spotlight.

“Our relief effort is progressing, although it’s still at a slow pace,” Roxas told reporters. “Every day is better than yesterday. There is nothing fast enough in a situation like this because so many were affected and infrastructure damaged.” 

Volunteers have been called to help repack goods in Manila and other staging areas, such as the nearby province of Cebu.

Residents, hopeful they could rebuild, started cleaning whatever structures were left of their houses after tsunami-like storm surge smashed into Tacloban.

“I grew up here, so it’s difficult to just leave,” said businessman Roger Camtos, 36, cleaning the grills on the windows of his parents’ two-storey house.

The roof was torn off, with only the facade left standing. “We will slowly rebuild this house so we can still come home here,” he said.

Nearby, 49-year-old Agapito Nunez removed debris, plywood and other dirt from his two-storey house and piled it on a mound on the roadside.

“I’m watching over the house to make sure that looters will not take any of what was left here,” said the father of three, who sent his family to stay with his in-laws in the nearby town of Santa Fe.

Substantial food and medical aid finally began reaching the desperate survivors of the Philippines super typhoon yesterday, but humanitarian groups warned of huge logistical challenges in accessing devastated, remote island communities.

A baby was delivered with help from Israeli army medics and the grateful mother named him Israel.

The United States, which used to rule the Philippines, is by far the greatest contributor to the effort, spearheaded by the giant USS George Washington. In addition to the delivery of relief supplies, US military aircraft have logged nearly 480 flight hours in 186 aircraft sorties, moved nearly 1,200 relief workers into hard-hit Tacloban city and airlifted nearly 2,900 displaced people from the affected areas to date.

Over the last 24 hours, more than 118 tonnes of food, water and shelter items have been delivered to Tacloban, Borongan and Guiuan, the US military said.

The United Nations, which had launched an appeal for US$301 million in relief funding, said on Friday it had so far received $72 million.

Japan has tripled its emergency aid package to more than $30 million and is preparing to send up to 1,000 troops, in what would be the country’s biggest foreign deployment since World War II.

The European Union upped its contribution by $7 million yesterday to $20 million.