Survivors walked like zombies looking for food – student Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:05:51 +0000 by Reuters, AP and Ellson A. Quismorio November 12, 2013 Three days after super typhoon “Yolanda,” one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, pummeled the Visayas, rescuers continue to struggle to reach ravaged areas as they faced blocked roads and damaged airports, while survivors foraged for food as supplies dwindled or searched for lost loved ones. “People are walking like zombies looking for food,” said Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte. “It’s like a movie.” Very little assistance had reached the city, residents reported. Some took food, water, and consumer goods from abandoned shops, malls, and homes. Looting In Tacloban Looters rampaged through several stores in Tacloban, witnesses said, taking whatever they could find as rescuers’ efforts to deliver food and water were hampered by severed roads and communications. Mobs attacked trucks loaded with food, tents and water on Tanauan bridge in Leyte, said Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon. “These are mobsters operating out of there.” Shoot Looters – Duterte Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte yesterday directed the police and army manning a convoy of vehicles bringing medical equipment and medicines from his city to areas affected by Yolanda to “shoot” looters or anyone who will try to stop them. But President Benigno S. Aquino III said the situation in Tacloban City is now under control as the government moves to swiftly bring relief assistance as well as restore peace and order in the area. The President assured that government assets have been mobilized to deliver food and water to the typhoon survivors in Tacloban, one of the areas hardest hit by the typhoon. “The situation in Tacloban, especially this report of looting is very new to our experience, collective experience as a country,” Aquino admitted. Police forces have virtually taken over the entire Tacloban City as more troops were sent and are set to arrive to restore law and order amid massive looting in the supertyphoon-stricken capital of Leyte. Director General Alan Purisima, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said a total of 883 police forces were sent to Leyte, 639 of them were deployed in Tacloban City. But Purisima shot down proposal to declare Martial Law in Tacloban City, dialogues and negotiations are still a better way to address the problem. “There is no need to declare Martial Law because what the people need there is basically food. We should just provide what they need and the government can provide all of these,” said Purisima in a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City. Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, the AFP public affairs officer, said troops from the 525th Engineering Combat Battalion and 1st Special Forces (SF) Battalion were scheduled to depart via a Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 aircraft from Villamor Airbase in Pasay to Tacloban City Airport yesterday to assist in ongoing humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) operations. Totally Ravaged Survivors wandered through the remains of their flattened wooden homes looking to salvage belongings or to search for loved ones. “This area has been totally ravaged,” said Sebastien Sujobert, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tacloban. “Many lives were lost, a huge number of people are missing, and basic services such as drinking water and electricity have been cut off,” he said. He added that both the Philippine Red Cross and the ICRC offices in Tacloban had been damaged, forcing staff to relocate temporarily. Most Terrifying Yolanda was the most terrifying event I have witnessed, professional storm-chaser James Reynolds said. “I’ve chased nothing like this before. This was just totally off the scale both in terms of the violence of the storm and then the human tragedy, the consequences of such a powerful natural event hitting a city of 200,000 people,” Reynolds told AFP. Many tourists were stranded. ‘’Seawater reached the second floor of the hotel,’’ said Nancy Chang, who was on a business trip from China in Tacloblan City and walked three hours through mud and debris for a military-led evacuation at the airport. ‘’It’s like the end of the world.’’ It Was A Tsunami – Kring-Kring It was not a storm surge; it was a tsunami. A wall of water that blew out the roof of their house. That was how Tacloban City Councilor Cristina “Kring-Kring” Gonzales Romualdez described her harrowing experience at the destructive hands of Yolanda. But Cristina, her two daughters (aged 14 and 10), her husband, City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, all survived the ordeal, but they were so close to being just another statistic. “What we went through in Tacloban and nearby towns…I don’t think any city or any country would have been prepared for this magnitude of a disaster,” Cristina said in a press conference Monday within a covered court in Makati City, where volunteers tirelessly sorted and bagged food items for Taclobanons and other Yolanda victims. Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who called for the volunteer efforts, said the typhoon spared no one, from civilians to local government officials. “(The victims) are definitely in the thousands. Not just in Tacloban. Everything in the path of the typhoon, no one was spared,” the congressman said.(With reports from Genalyn D. Kabiling, Charissa M. Luci, Aaron B. Recuenco, Elena L. Aben, AFP, and Alexander D. Lopez) Supplemental Rehab Budget Rep. Romualdez also urged President Aquino to propose a supplemental budget to Congress to fund rehabilitation efforts for Yolanda victims as well those affected by the October 15 earthquake and the Zamboanga City crisis. So far, only two city councilors – Cristina included – have been accounted for. According to the lady councilor, what she saw following Yolanda’s landfall Friday morning was not just a storm surge, but something more frightening – a tsunami. “The water receded maybe about two to three kilometers out (from the shoreline) one hour before. It was probably caused by the storm, but we didn’t expect it,” Cristina said, almost dumbfounded that a tsunami – normally caused by earthquakes or major movements underground – could be triggered by Yolanda. “Even in science, we don’t even know that a tsunami can be caused by a storm. Did it ever happen in the past? We were warned about a storm surge but we were not warned about a tsunami.” Cristina said she saw what appeared to be a tsunami from the shoreline. “It was as high as the airport tower.” The airport tower is three stories (30 feet) high, she said. Click here to Original Content
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 04:24:17 +0000
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