Super Typhoon to hit Philippines

In major diasaters like this its always going to take a little bit of time for the relief aid to wind itself up. Personally I think its been too slow and badly organised even taking into account the continuing project in Bohol etc after the earthquake. In fact the response should've been quicker as the systems should have already been in place and up and running. Thinking about it though, the thing to remember as well is that the local goverment has all but been detroyed. There is effectively no one on the ground to co-ordinate any of this. I notice that vision aid is being used to distrabute the shelter kits sent by the UK.

Hmm seems I 've done a bit of a 180 in the space of one post!! The local infrastucture in the philippines is always weak but just have a think how other countries have coped when confronted with occurances like this. I'm thinking about New Orleans, a city in the most developed country in the world (apparently)

This is going to be a big problem as well. There will soon be shortages of food, water, money and shelter in the surrounding areas putting even more of a strain on people.

I'm getting home from work next week and am thiniking about going to the red cross in Olongapo and see if they need any help. Just volenter some time or something.

Let's hope the aid is being evenly distributed now.

I read further to this that the guards openly let people in, getting the 'ok' from the manager, because he didn't want to see people go hungry, then he alleged that they started nicking air cons and other such equipment. Aircons!

I agree with your comments, Stu.
What baffled me right from the outset was that there didn't seem to be any Philippine soldiers sent in. Surely there was a military base within striking distance for them to get shifts worked out and to eat and sleep?
Maybe I'm being naïve.

There are numerous army outposts on the road from Tacloban to Catbalogan. i'm not sure of numbers, equipment levels or skills but it is surprising that they are noticable by their absence. A person in uniform is always handy to have at the startt of these things. People are naturally looking for a leader and those in uniform are seen to be this.

On the subject of water purification raised by Howerd in an earlier post I have always been meaning to try this out.

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/health/how-to-purify-water-with-sunlight/
http://www.csiro.au/helix/sciencemail/activities/WaterPurifier.htm

Its been used in africa for a few years with success I believe. Clear plastic PET bottles (ie ckoe)are best no bigger than 2litres.

Hmm maybe some exaggeration from some parties?!

Tacloban before and after.

A bit of code at the top of the page, scroll down.

Drag the slider left and right

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303914304579193971305978200

You misunderstood - I wasn't criticising either the BBC or CNN. In fact their presence may prove to be a positive thing in that they will report on what they see and that will might shame the government into doing something more than what appears to be tokenism.

You are not alone. There are a lot of foreigners living on these islands who are just as disgusted and disappointed with the national government's level of response, myself included. But I am not pinning the Badge of Blame on Aquino just yet as it appears that he is reliant on officials, some of whom are clearly not up to the job. But this whole system of government is so hide-bound by multiple layers of bureaucracy and red-tape that even the simplest task takes far longer to complete than it should - or would elsewhere.

Tacloban airport was, prior to the typhoon, served by jet aircraft (A320s) of PAL and Cebu Pacific. The storm destroyed the terminal building and the control tower and now the airport can only operate on "Visual Flight Rules" which rules out operations after around 5.30pm for the next 12 hours and when visibility is poor (eg whilst it is raining). The CAAP has re-opened the airport but only for turboprop aircraft - in other words, the PAF's two C-130s, PALex's Dash-8s and Cebu Pacific's ATRs but Cebu Pacific has stated it has suspended all its flights to/from Tacloban. PAL has re-introduced a limited service between Tacloban, Manila and Cebu; the Tacloban-bound flights are full of relatives trying to locate their families whilst the outbound flights are filled by those seeking to escape. There is no room for freight so the only aid is arriving on the PAF's two remaining C-130s and almost exclusively from Villamor Air Force base adjacent to NAIA.

The government has announced that all major roads on Leyte and Samar are now clear and whilst the evening news showed "ro-ro" buses arriving in Tacloban, there were no pictures of aid convoys arriving in Tacloban or elswhere. Are there any? Where is the aid - we see plenty of pictures of aid items being repacked in Manila but no pictures at all of any aid being distributed to those needing it. One reason is that the trucks bound for Tacloban are taking the overland/ro-ro route from Luzon and obviously not filling-up with fuel before boarding the ro-ro ferry. We saw pictures today of a 'procession' of aid trucks that had broken down somewhere on Samar. These will probably be abandoned by their drivers and be looted.

At a televised news conference today - expressly conducted in Filipino - an official was asked about foreign aid arriving in the country. The official apparently explained that foreign doctors, nurses and other medical workers would not be allowed to treat Filipinos until their qualifications had been checked and the necessary permits issued; a process that could take several days. Furthermore all medicines arriving in the country would be checked by the FDA for suitability. We know that foreign aid is being delayed at the ports of entry by Customs who are taking up to 24 hours to clear shipments and there have even been suggestions that duty is being levied, though this is denied by officials.

The government appears to be rather too keen for the world's spotlight to fall elsewhere, hence Aquino's downplaying and evasive answers during the CNN interview. Aquino wants us to believe that the death toll will be around 2,000 but others believe that many, many more than that will die of disease and starvation.

That story is too incredulous to be even faintly believable.

Point noted.

Seems to be lack of organisation at the highest level, and the soldiers seem like a bunch of wussies
(from my remote viewpoint)

Tacloban will struggle to recover as a city after this.

Who will want to live there with the memory of what might happen again.

Tons of Aid Undelivered - today's Philippine Star:

From the above: "He said the only foreign relief goods that were ready for distribution came from Taiwan and these items would be brought to Ormoc City.". This rather suggests that despite the first shipment from the UK arriving early yesterday morning, it hasn't yet been released by Customs - nor has a shipment which arrived in Manila on a Lufthansa cargo flight from Germany over the weekend been released. Not only is the Philippine Government not delivering aid but it is hampering the efforts of others to do so as well.

Some have guilty consciences:

More from the Philippine Star

Update:

Just been informed that after a long journey, and two days waiting in Catbalogan they have been given a "Priority Number" by Western Union, and told to return on Monday.

Apparently Western Union in Calbayog have already reached the daily limit.

Now that the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeerah news teams are in-country and broadcasting their own pictures rather than those provided to them by ABS-CBN and GMA, a somewhat different picture has been emerging regarding the Philippine government's handling of this crisis. Or rather of its mis-handling and, in the case of Tacloban, that may be deliberate.

It's not just we westerners, who live both inside and outside the country, who are seeing the foreign news media's coverage; Filipinos are too and they are not at all happy with what they see. Coming hard on the heels of the Napoles Pork Barrel scandal, some Filipinos are realising that they are being stolen from and lied at on a daily basis. They've actually known that for quite some time but what is shameful for them is that the rest of the world also now knows. The seeds for an 'EDSA' type event are being sown.

One prominent CNN journalist, Anderson Cooper, very recently gave a first-hand account of conditions in Tacloban which was somewhat at odds with the 'official, sanitised' Philippine version. He was attacked on air by Korina Sanchez - aka Mrs Mar Roxas whose husband is allegedly in charge of relief and aid operations - who is an ABS-CBN news anchor, who stated, on her radio show, that Cooper didn't know what he was talking about.

I'm pleased to hear that your family are being taken out of there, Rob, as things will only get worse. Even when the international aid agencies do get geared-up and their supplies are delivered - which will be by the US rather than the Philippine military - lawlessness will increase unless the Philippine forces are prepared to give "tough love".

I found this posted elsewhere. It's a first hand account of an American expat who was living in Tacloban:

When will Philippine politicians wake-up to the fact that the world - and especially the big donor nations - can see exactly how poorly they are performing in dealing with this crisis.