Super Typhoon to hit Philippines

http://news.calbayogjournal.com/calbayognons-reach-out-to-help-tacloban.html#

Found this via some facebook stuff. It looks like western Samar may have escaped the storm surge and only (ha) had to deal with the winds and rain. I'm starting to feel a little better, selfish I know considering those that have family in Tacloban and the surrounding areas.

You get the Extension from the office on the left; that will give you 59 days in country and costs P3,000-ish.

Taken from the Philippine Red Cross wesite

http://www.redcross.org.ph/news/422

Red Cross conducts assessment, sends aid after supertyphoon battered Visayas

After super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) battered Visayas, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has deployed assessment, rescue and relief teams to evaluate the damage and to support rescue efforts.

Staff and volunteers from local chapters are now deployed in different affected areas. Three teams from the National Headquarters will be deployed in Samar, Leyte and Capiz together with the Water Search and Rescue Teams of Olongapo Chapter.

PRC Operation Center reported that as of this morning communication lines in Leyte were still down, flood waters were approximately 10 feet high brought by the storm surge in Tacloban City and Palo City.

Power supplies in Eastern Samar, Oriental Mindoro, Masbate, Sorsogon, Leyte, Negros, Capiz, Romblon and Busuanga have not been restored since 9 am this morning.

The PRC chapter in Masbate will be conducting assessment in Balud, one of the hardest hit areas, were no reports were gathered as of today.

In Leyte, PRC packed relief goods for immediate distribution to evacuation centers. Hot meals were provided to 450 evacuees in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and Eastern Visayas State University.

Even before the typhoon Yolanda entered Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), food and non-food items were already prepositioned in PRC Cebu Regional Warehouse consisting of 2,000 tins of ready to eat food, 4,000 blankets, 4,000 plastic mats, 2,000 hygiene kits, 2,000 jerry cans, 10 units of health emergency tents and 5,000 of food and non-food items with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Welfare Desks including restoring family links and tracing services were established in the affected areas to assist affected individuals with tracing inquiries.

Hot meals were also provided to 3,365 affected individuals in Masbate, San Pablo and Capiz.

As of 9am, a total of 19,677 families (993,585 persons) were temporarily sheltered in 353 evacuation centers.

More than 340 barangays from 46 municipalities and cities were reported affected.


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I'm interested in this "water search and rescue team" that is in the olongapo chapter. I think they have an office on Magsaysay Drive so I might check them out

Thanks Mark

Does this strike anyone as a tiny responce given the magnitude of the disaster I have some experience of much lower level emergancy planning at events and this is comparable to what we organised in a very wet event for 15000 people many of whome lost there tents had wet bedding and couldnt leave in there cars immediatly, getting new supplies has to be at the same level as normal resupply deliverys for shops etc unless this is a full military responce there will be less people to help later

Tend to agree with you Keith. How does this compare to the Thailand tsunami in terms of response? Have to remember the philippines knew about this and Thailand didn't. Its going to be intertesting how long / effective the clean up is going to be as well. They just don't have the infrastructure in place. Look at Vietnam and how many people they've evacuated already. Everyone goes on about filipino spirit which is great but it only gets you so far.

David Cameron Pledges £6 Million To Aid Devastated Philippines

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...ion-aid-philippines_n_4250585.html?ref=topbar

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24886806

UAE pledges 10 million US dollars....

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/bl...hoon-victims--how-you-can-help-163226241.html

Do stop your carping and criticising: the PRC has had two major emergencies to deal with, coming one after another in quick succession; that it was able to pre-position any aid is to be applauded. Also the Philippine armed forces have been responding ever since the typhoon hit: the first aid to arrive in Tacloban did so by means of a air force C-130 which landed a few hours after the typhoon had passed.

How do you propose "getting new supplies has to be at the same level as normal resupply deliverys for shops" when air and sea ports are closed and roads blocked by fallen trees, electricity poles and debris? The government did pre-position emergency supplies in Tacloban but they became spoiled due to roof of the warehouse being torn-off.

A Red Cross convoy carrying food and emergency supplies for 25,000 people in Tacoloban was attacked and looted by a mob at Tanauan. That convoy was not able to get through.

Organising food and shelter for a few concert goers on a rainy weekend is nowhere near the same logistically as the scale of the operations in the Visayas for a super typhoon.

This bit from the Beeb's article annoys:

AFAIK there are no such teams in the Philippines. Why is that, Mr Hague?

For those seeking info about people in the typhoon areas try this Google people finding service:


http://google.org/pe...r/2013-yolanda/


It also has a mobile phone version.
“You can request status via SMS by sending an SMS to +16508003977 with the message Search person-name. For example, if you are searching for Joshua, send the message Search Joshua,” said Google.

"Does this strike anyone as a tiny responce given the magnitude of the disaster I have some experience of much lower level emergancy planning at events and this is comparable to what we organised in a very wet event for 15000 people many of whome lost there tents had wet bedding and couldnt leave in there cars immediatly, getting new supplies has to be at the same level as normal resupply deliverys for shops etc unless this is a full military responce there will be less people to help later "

Is what I said Carping ? or drawing attention to a notable flaw (reassuring as that may be to anyone who is challenged by math) because as you rightly (almost) point out here we are talking about 4.5million people affected without power water will not be cleaned.

What I meant about resupply is that the majority in the Phils hold small reserves of food and that without the supply side starvation will become rife, The mob was probably in survival mode who can judge what shock and fear will lead to I expect they may also have children to feed and no belief that there government gives a damn or knows what its doing.

Boats is the obvious answer in fact the only one for the more remote coastal communities many of whome hae had no contact from the authorities. Metropolitan City,s are the first to break down when the shops are bare or flattened.

Finally while you are right that the scale of my experiences doesnt equate with this disaster , 15000 people mostly families needing to avoid hypothermia is,when your responcible doesnt allow much sleep

Great news! Chel's family are all ok on their island. Their house is ok but a lot of the less strong houses are destroyed. All of the places in the North of Cebu are like this.

It's been a traumatic couple of days, but we finally heard from my wife's family this morning and they are ok. Such a relief. They are in Macarthur, which is on the coast to the south of Tacloban and right in the path of the typhoon.

The family all lived in Nipa huts. All of their homes are gone, but they are safe. Today they took a 3 hour ride on a motocycle to Mahaplag, which is the nearest place they could get a phone signal, and we got a text message at about 6am and were able to phone them.

It seems that Macarthur prepared itself fairly well for the typhoon. Everyone gathered in the strongest houses there, and as far as they know there are no casualties in the town. Petrol stations have stored stocks into metal cans and are selling petrol at triple the normal price.

The house in which they stayed had its roof taken off, and they ended up all huddled in a toilet in the house. They described it as "really being under attack".

Everyone brought plenty of stocks of food and water, so for the moment at least they have supplies. They are, of course, homeless now and everyone is staying in these houses that are left standing.

So at least the main worries about what happened to them are now over.

Good News Mike & Maharg your Island Mike is nearer to Leyte or Masbate than Cebu and very isolated hadnt realised

I am pleased and relieved to hear this good news from Mike and Maharg. Let's hope that the rest of our 'brothers and sisters' are able to report news of a similar nature.

Al.

Yes Keith, Carnaza is right out in the middle of the big blue.

Glad your family are ok, Maharg

Just spoke to the wife. They recieved a text from a niece in the province on Western Samar. Her particular village (Bangon)is ok and appears the wind didn't do much damage. I don't know what qualifies as "not much damage" out there. This village is inland and there is no news about our village on the coast but my hopes are rising. I've reports on facebook that there are 2 confirmed casualties from Western Samar. It looks like they got off very lightly but I'm still waiting for confirmation.

Lets hope everyuone else gets some good news

My wife's mom tells us that she hasn't heard from 3 sisters and her mother in St Remigio in the north of Cebu. Relatives in Negros and of course Cavite are okay. Some other relatives in Cebu had their roof ripped off but are okay.

Bantayan appears to have been affected.