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TACLOBAN, the Philippines — After touring miles of roofless homes and shattered shantytowns destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan last month, Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that additional American humanitarian aid would be sent to the Philippines. He called the giant storm a warning of extreme weather in a warming world.
TACLOBAN, the Philippines — After touring miles of roofless homes and shattered shantytowns destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan last month, Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that additional American humanitarian aid would be sent to the Philippines. He called the giant storm a warning of extreme weather in a warming world.
“No words can do justice to the level of destruction we’ve seen in this entire community,” Mr. Kerry said. “This is a devastation that is unlike anything I’ve seen at this kind of scale.”
“No words can do justice to the level of destruction we’ve seen in this entire community,” he said.
For the most part, the severe shortages of food and clean water in the two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall on Nov. 8 have ended. But four million people lost their homes to the tsunami-like storm surges or gusts that reached 200 miles an hour, and the effort to rebuild has barely begun.
For the most part, the severe shortages of food and clean water in the two weeks after the typhoon made landfall on Nov. 8 have ended. But four million people lost their homes to the tsunami-like storm surges or gusts that reached 200 miles an hour, and the effort to rebuild has barely begun.
The Philippine government raised the official death toll to 6,092 on Thursday, with 27,665 injured and 1,779 missing. Local officials say the number of dead will continue to rise as more bodies are found.
The Philippine government raised the official death toll to 6,092 on Thursday, with 27,665 injured and 1,779 missing. Local officials say the number of dead will continue to rise as more bodies are found.
Running water has been restored in some central areas of Tacloban, but large areas of Leyte and Samar Islands still have none. Full electricity service will take months.
Running water has been restored in some central areas of Tacloban, but large areas of Leyte and Samar Islands still have none.
“While no single storm can be attributed to climate change, we do know to a certainty that rising temperatures will lead to longer and more unpredictable monsoon seasons and will lead to more extreme weather events,” Mr. Kerry said. “Looking around here, you see an unmistakable example of what an extreme weather event looks like, and a reminder of our responsibility to act to protect the future.”
“Looking around here,” Mr. Kerry said, “you see an unmistakable example of what an extreme weather event looks like, and a reminder of our responsibility to act to protect the future.”
Saying that Tacloban still looked like a war zone, Mr. Kerry announced that Washington would donate $24.6 million immediately for relief, adding to the $62 million already supplied. He said the United States would consider further requests.
Mr. Kerry said Washington would donate $24.6 million immediately for relief, adding to the $62 million already supplied.
President Benigno S. Aquino III said in a speech in Manila on Wednesday that the typhoon had inflicted $12.9 billion in damage and economic losses. He predicted that the rebuilding would last through 2017.
President Benigno S. Aquino III said Wednesday that the typhoon had inflicted $12.9 billion in damage and economic losses. He predicted that the rebuilding would last through 2017.
As part of a conference in Geneva on Monday that focused on the need for humanitarian relief for refugees from Syria but included other crises, the United Nations requested $791 million to help typhoon victims, and said it had raised only 30 percent of the money so far. The United Nations and the Red Cross have urgently appealed to foreign countries for four million heavy-duty corrugated steel sheets needed to replace roofs, as the Philippines supply is exhausted.
While the government updates the death toll daily, it has left the number of missing unchanged for more than two weeks. Tacloban, a sprawling city of almost 500,000 permanent and temporary residents before the storm, has one small office that accepts missing-person reports, and many residents said they did not even know it existed.
Benjoe Cabacaba, a resident of the coastal San Jose neighborhood, said on Wednesday that his parents, his father-in-law, two sisters, a cousin, a close friend and six nieces and nephews had all vanished when storm waves crashed over their homes. Nobody has reported any of them missing, Mr. Cabacaba said, adding that he did not know if their bodies had ended up in a mass grave for the unidentified dead or were among the many swept out to sea.
“We don’t know what to do” to report family members as missing, he said. “We can barely find food to eat on a daily basis — all my focus is on getting enough food for my family. It’s the same for everyone here.”
Jerry Yaokasin, the deputy mayor of Tacloban, said there was a strong reluctance at all levels of government to acknowledge the full death toll, but declined to discuss the reasons.
An international outcry over the scale of the devastation, prompted by extensive news reports, led the Philippines to expand its effort considerably. It acted to some extent after the United States had begun pouring troops and aircraft into the area and installed a much-needed mobile air traffic control unit at Tacloban’s shattered airport.
Mayor Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban told Mr. Kerry that some older residents of the city, after seeing the extensive deployment of American soldiers and aircraft, said it had reminded them of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s storming of the beaches in 1944 that began the Philippines’ liberation from Japanese occupation in World War II.
Mr. Aquino and Mr. Romualdez spoke of building more typhoon-resilient communities to prepare for a climate that might produce more powerful storms. Mr. Kerry, in a brief interview after his tour of Tacloban, said, “There are all kinds of signs, all signaling serious impacts from long-term climate change.”
Yet many residents here are already rebuilding on sites flattened by the storm surge, despite threats by local and national officials to declare oceanfront sites as no-build zones.
On a recent afternoon, Pio Canayong, 30, was rebuilding his grandparents’ home, which lay more than 50 yards from shore but where little remained except an orange tile floor. Numerous squatter huts are also being rebuilt closer to the water’s edge.
Incongruously, farther inland is a 140-foot freighter that careened through buildings during the storm surge. Mr. Canayong described how the freighter demolished the house and killed two of his grandparents as he dived to safety. His mother and four siblings also died.
Mr. Canayong was still gathering materials to rebuild, saying that the land was his family’s remaining possession. “I don’t want to move away,” he said.
