At least 1,200 lives have been lost, the Red Cross estimates, after super-typhoon Haiyan, likely the strongest storm to ever make landfall, slammed into the Philippines, leaving cities and towns in coastal areas devastated and bodies rotting in the streets.
“We estimate 1,000 people were killed in Tacloban and 200 in Samar province,” said Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, of these island areas.
While the red cross expects to have a more precise count Sunday, they say it could take days to measure the true scale of this human tragedy, as communications are down in some of the hardest-hit areas.
Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, told the Associated Press that his staff reports more than 100 bodies lying in the streets of Tacloban, which was hardest hit by the typhoon.
Tacloban residents are searching the wreckage for food and water, CNN reports.
Six central Philippine islands were devastated when the typhoon hit Friday, with heavy flood water and fierce winds inflicting the most damage. “The sea engulfed Tacloban,” said ABS-CBN television anchor Ted Failon, filing a report on Friday from Tacloban, describing the
The storm is moving quickly towards Vietnam, which it is expected to reach on Sunday.
Climate experts say that changing weather patterns, as a result of global warming, will bring more intense and frequent storms.
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Source: Common Dreams