Post: #1

Jesus. I hope any Rooshers out that direction are okay.

What a tragedy - poor people...

Quote:(Reuters) - One of the most powerful storms ever recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said on Sunday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region's main city.

Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of the area in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said police chief superintendent Elmer Soria.

As rescue workers struggled to reach ravaged villages along the coast, where the death toll is as yet unknown, 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."

Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging sea water strewn with debris that many said resembled a tsunami, leveling houses and drowning hundreds of people in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the typhoon-prone Southeast Asian nation.

The national government and disaster agency have not confirmed the latest estimate of deaths, a sharp increase from initial estimates on Saturday of at least 1,000 killed by a storm whose sustained winds reached 195 miles per hour (313 km per hour) with gusts of up to 235 mph.

"We had a meeting last night with the governor and the other officials. The governor said, based on their estimate, 10,000 died," Soria told Reuters. "The devastation is so big."

More than 330,900 people were displaced and 4.3 million "affected" by the typhoon in 36 provinces, the U.N.'s humanitarian agency said, as relief agencies called for food, water and tarpaulins for the homeless.

Witnesses and officials described chaotic scenes in Leyte's capital, Tacloban, a coastal city of 220,000 about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Manila, with hundreds of bodies piled on the sides of roads and pinned under wrecked houses.

The city lies in a cove where the seawater narrows, making it susceptible to storm surges.

The city and nearby villages as far as one kilometer (just over half a mile) from shore were flooded, leaving floating bodies and roads choked with debris from fallen trees, tangled power lines and flattened homes. TV footage showed children clinging to rooftops for their lives.

Many Internet users urged prayers and called for aid for survivors in the largely Roman Catholic nation on social media sites such as Twitter.

"From a helicopter, you can see the extent of devastation. From the shore and moving a kilometer inland, there are no structures standing. It was like a tsunami," said Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas, who had been in Tacloban since before the typhoon struck the city.

"I don't know how to describe what I saw. It's horrific."

LOOTERS TAKE WHAT THEY CAN

Mila Ward, an Australian citizen and Filipino by birth who was in Leyte on vacation visiting her family, said she saw hundreds of bodies on the streets.

"They were covered with blankets, plastic. There were children and women," she said.

The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said aerial surveys showed "significant damage to coastal areas with heavy ships thrown to the shore, many houses destroyed and vast tracts of agricultural land decimated".

The destruction extended well beyond Tacloban. Officials had yet to make contact with Guiuan, a town of 40,000 that was first hit by the typhoon. Baco, a city of 35,000 people in Oriental Mindoro province, was 80 percent under water, the U.N. said.

There were reports of damage across much of the Visayas, a region of eight major islands, including Leyte, Cebu and Samar.

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."

Six people were killed and dozens wounded during heavy winds and storms in central Vietnam as Haiyan approached the coast, state media reported, even though it had weakened substantially since hitting the Philippines.

Vietnam authorities have moved 883,000 people in 11 central provinces to safe zones, according to the government's website. Despite weakening, the storm is likely to cause heavy rains, flooding, strong winds and mudslides as it makes its way north in the South China Sea.

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."

Tecson John Lim, the Tacloban city administrator, said city officials had so far only collected 300-400 bodies, but believed the death toll in the city alone could be 10,000.

International aid agencies said relief efforts in the Philippines were stretched thin after a 7.2 magnitude quake in central Bohol province last month and displacement caused by a conflict with Muslim rebels in southern Zamboanga province.

The World Food Programme said it was airlifting 40 tons of high-energy biscuits, enough to feed 120,000 people for a day, as well as emergency supplies and telecommunications equipment.

Tacloban city airport was all but destroyed as seawaters swept through the city, shattering the glass of the airport tower, leveling the terminal and overturning nearby vehicles.

A Reuters reporter saw five bodies inside a chapel near the airport, placed on pews. Airport manager Efren Nagrama, 47, said water levels rose up to four meters (13 feet).

"It was like a tsunami. We escaped through the windows and I held on to a pole for about an hour as rain, seawater and wind swept through the airport," he said. "Some of my staff survived by clinging to trees. I prayed hard all throughout until the water subsided."

Post: #2

Wow.

That is absolutely awful.

Life truly is a gift that can be taken away at the flick of a switch.

What a terrible way to die.

Post: #3

This is pretty fucked up.

I've been through one of these before(Cat 4 on landfall) and I was lucky enough to be inside a solid building. Huge amounts of devastation. Sad to hear about the large loss of life, I can't believe they didn't evacuate everyone like they should have.

Post: #4

Truly horrific. Even with so much advance warning, there is nothing that can be done because the entire archipelago is affected by the storm. There is nowhere to run, you can only hope that your building gets lucky and is not built on a landslide-prone area.

Post: #5

That's awful.

Makes me sick to my stomach

Post: #6

Crazy...

Here in Manila you would have never known anything happened. Friday night we had about an hour of hard rain and wind but that is it.

A small shift in the storm and it could have hit Manila. 10,000 would have been 100,000.

Post: #7

Any word on Davao? One of my girl's family is there.

Prayers for those poor people.

Post: #8

Expect to see more massive trajedies like this in the coming years. Where are the are the global warming deniers now?

Post: #9

(11-10-2013 10:59 AM)soup Wrote:  Expect to see more massive trajedies like this in the coming years. Where are the are the global warming deniers now?

How does this single event substantiate any argument about "global warming"?

Post: #10

(11-10-2013 10:59 AM)soup Wrote:  Expect to see more massive trajedies like this in the coming years. Where are the are the global warming deniers now?

Post: #11

Damn this is fucked up, really a tragedy, often times here in the U.S. we are kind of living in our little bubble, and we forget how stuff like this happens in other parts of the world.

I hate to sound so self-absorbed, like everything is about me, but when I hear stories like this, it helps to put things into perspective. Instead of feeling down about lost business opportunities, lost romantic opportunities, or boredom, I should just be thankful that this morning I got to sleep in on my comfy bed, smoked good weed, and sit in my heated home and bullshit on rooshvforum.

Post: #12

(11-10-2013 10:59 AM)soup Wrote:  Expect to see more massive trajedies like this in the coming years. Where are the are the global warming deniers now?

http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/11/09/m...al-report/

Post: #13

While I don't doubt that global warming is a real phenomenon and global concern, this kind of storm hardly constitutes an indication.

Post: #14

This is awful. My prayers are for all the poor people of this great country.

Post: #15

Finally someone had the courage to open a thread about this event.

there is NO doubt there will be many love tourists among the victims. Just take a look at the numbers: from basically any country there are dozens, even hunderds of foreigners... definitely not only beach goers.

very sad news for both a poor country and for all foreigners (whatever their goals) visiting the country.

Post: #16

Quote:A group of more than a dozen Southern California volunteers, mostly military veterans, are scheduled to land in the Philippines Monday to aid with search-and-rescue efforts in the typhoon-ravaged country, CBS Los Angeles reports.

KNX 1070's Ed Mertz reports volunteers are from Team Rubicon, a non-profit organization started in 2010 by two former Marines who wanted to help with earthquake relief in Haiti.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-5761...e-efforts/

I'd jump in on this if able.

Post: #17

Since the end of last week I've been messaging everyone I chat with in the Phils to see if they're okay, and if they know anyone in the hardest hit areas. A couple of them work in Hong Kong, but their families are still there. One said her family lost all of their homes, but they all survived.

In one of the news stories, they interviewed a pregnant woman who lost not only her home, but all 11 family members. There are simply no words for that. Her child will be born into a world of complete devastation and death, and she'll have no one to lean on.

Post: #18

Not one word on my Florida news channels yet. Without this forum I'd have no idea this happened.