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The
typhoon first made landfall in the city of Guiuan. Authorities estimate
that over 23,000 homes were destroyed throughout the storm's path
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| Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan | |
Some
bodies were laid in St. Michael The Archangel Chapel in the city of
Tacloban, in the central Philippines. The city has no functioning
morgue, so people put bodies where they can.
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| Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan | |
Debris coats the city's streets as the rain continues four days after the typhoon.
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| Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan | |
Survivors walk over a bridge destroyed by the typhoon.
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| Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan | |
Large waves caused by Haiyan washed two large boats onto Tacloban's wrecked shore
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| Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan | |
Although the typhoon is called Haiyan elsewhere, its name in the Philippines is Yolanda
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| Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan | |
Survivors rush to a military evacuation plane in Tacloban on Tuesday. Only a few hundred made it this round
Destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan
To hasten
relief efforts, Philippine officials have asked for help from the United
States, who dispatched the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George Washington
from Hong Kong on Tuesday.
"We've
asked the U.S. for aid and the secretary of defense says they are
sending an aircraft carrier and a couple other ships — those are en
route," Ricky Carandang, a spokesman for the Philippine president,
Benigno S. Aquino III,
"There are
lots of remote areas that haven't received aid," Mr. Carandang said.
"The priority is to get food and water supplied. With communications
partially functioning, with ports and roads blocked, we need to get that
clear first. We need to get the roads clear before you can get the aid
to them
"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."
"We need help. Nothing is happening," said Aristone Balute, an
81-year-old who also didn't get a flight. "We haven't eaten since
yesterday afternoon." Her clothes were soaked from the rain, and tears
streamed down her face
"There has been a lot of commentary that relief is not moving as fast
as it should be," said Praveen Agrawal, the World Food Program's
Philippines representative and country director. "The reality on the
ground is there is such a level of devastation."
"Under normal circumstances, even in a typhoon, you'd have some local
infrastructure up and some businesses with which you can contract," Mr.
Agrawal said. "Being as strong as it was, it was very much like a
tsunami. It wiped out everything. It's like starting from scratch" in
terms of delivering the aid, he said.
The UN will donate
at least $25 million towards relief efforts. And at least three
countries – Australia, Japan, and Britain— have pledged millions of
dollars in aid
The
monstrous storm seen in this new satellite image is the biggest of the
year and one of the most powerful tropical cyclones of all time. "Super
typhoon" Haiyan is currently thrashing the entirety of the Philippines with sustained winds of 190 mph and gusts up to 230 mph, and then it's headed for Vietnam. It's such a wildly dangerous storm that it's even terrifying the weather forecasters.
This storm has at all:
heavy rains, plenty of lightning, tremendous wincs, and a deadly storm
surge. If there's a little island here or there that doesn't get the
flooding from the rain, it will get it from the storm surge, and
whatever's not under the floodwaters will be whipped to hell by the
winds.
Dr. Jeff Masters, the popular meteorologist who blogs at Weather Underground, is especially shaken by the satellite loops of this nightmare storm.
Haiyan
has the most spectacular appearance I've ever seen on satellite loops,
with a prominent eye surrounded by a huge, impenetrable-looking mass of
intense eyewall thunderstorms with tops that reach into the lower
stratosphere," Masters wrote to
day.
"With landfall expected to occur by 21 UTC (4 pm EST) on Thursday,
Haiyan doesn't have time to weaken much before landfall, and will likely
hit the Philippines at Category 5 strength."
