Scroll Below For Links To Help…… Please let’s pray for them. - MJ-Upbeat.com - (Video Below)
Tacloban, Philippines (CNN) — A day after Super Typhoon Haiyan roared into the Philippines, officials predicted that the death toll could reach 1,200 — or more.
“We estimate 1,000 people were killed in Tacloban and 200 in Samar province,” Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, said of two coastal areas where Haiyan hit first as it began its march Friday across the archipelago.
The Red Cross said it would have more precise numbers Sunday.
The government’s official toll as of Saturday evening was 138 dead, 14 injured and four missing.
But experts predicted that it will take days to get the full scope of the damage wrought by a typhoon described as one of the strongest to make landfall in recorded history.
“Probably the casualty figure will increase as we get more information from remote areas, which have been cut off from communications,” said Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF’s Philippines representative.
The casualties from the storm, which affected 4.3 million people in 36 provinces, occurred despite preparations that included the evacuation of more than 800,000 people, he said.
On Saturday, more than 330,000 people were still in 1,223 evacuation centers, and the government had accepted a U.N. offer of international aid.
The National Risk Reduction and Management Council said more than 70,000 families were affected, and nearly 350,000 people were displaced — inside and outside evacuation centers. Thousands of houses were destroyed, it said.
Tacloban hardest hit
Tacloban suffered the greatest devastation, said Lt. Jim Aris Alago, information officer for Navy Central Command. “There are numbers of undetermined casualties found along the roads.”
Officials found more than 100 bodies scattered on the streets of the coastal city.
“We expect the greatest number of casualties there,” Alago said, adding that 100 body bags had been sent to the area. People were wading through waist-high water, and overturned vehicles, downed utility poles and trees were blocking roads and delaying the aid effort.
Mobile services were down, and officials were relying on radios.
Another 100 residents in this city of 220,000 were injured, said Capt. John Andrews, deputy director of the national Civil Aviation Authority.
Roofs and windows were blown off of and out of many of the buildings left standing. Rescue crews were handing out ready-to-eat meals, clothing, blankets, medicine and water, Alago said.
But the speed of the storm — which was clocked at 41 mph — meant residents didn’t have to hunker down long. Many emerged Saturday from their homes and shelters and trekked through streets littered with debris to supermarkets, looking for water and food. Several bodies were found at a chapel; a woman wept over one.
READ MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-haiyan/
Source: CNN / MJ-Upbeat.com / Thank you for bringing this to our attention Vernay Lewis & Becky-mj Baldo
Ways To Help:
(Thanks To The Examiner)
* The United Nations World Food Programme, the largest food aid organization, has set up a Typhoon Relief Fund.
* Catholic Relief Services has a donation form to help provide tents and water purification to storm victims.
* UNICEF has set up an appeal to provide nutrition, water and medicine to children in the Philippines.
* Save the Children has also set up a relief fund for storm victims.
