Posted on 11/09/2013 7:07:05 PM PST by FlJoePa
Authorities expect a “very high number of fatalities” after one of the strongest typhoons on record devastated central Philippines, cutting communications and severely damaging an airport in one of the hardest-hit regions.
A senior regional police official and a city administrator in the typhoon-ravaged Tacloban city in the central Philippines say the death toll there could reach 10,000 people, according to the Associated Press.
Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla on Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths on the island, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings.
Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone "could go up to 10,000."
Earlier, the Philippine Red Cross told Reuters that based on reports it estimated at least 1,200 were dead in Tacloban, which is located about 360 miles southeast of Manila, and 200 more in Samar Province.
Interior Secretary Max Roxas arrived in Tacloban Saturday and said it was too early to know exactly how many people had died following Typhoon Haiyan, which was heading toward Vietnam and expected to hit the country’s coast Sunday afternoon.
“The rescue operation is ongoing. We expect a very high number of fatalities as well as injured,” Roxas said. “All systems, all vestiges of modern living – communications, power water, all are down. Media is down, so there is no way to communicate with the people in a mass sort of way.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I don’t see how anyone could have survived that if they were near the coast.
Like Andrew on steroids.
Very sad - this typhoon is supposedly the strongest on record? Comparable to Galveston in 1900?
That’s 10,000 just in the city of Tacloban. Hope many were wise enough to fly out since they had warnings. Why anyone lives there when they get hit regularly.
At least people had a chance to flee Northward in advance of Andrew....When you live on an island, where can you go?
Imagine, in the case of Galveston, a storm like that coming with very little warning.
have all our FReepers in the Philippines been heard from??
This makes Katrina look like a sprinkle compared to this..there is one town called Guiuan where all 40,000 residents are unaccounted for alone..prayers to everyone in the Philippines
Well that's what I mean....it's not just an island, the Philippines consist of thousands of islands. You'd have to literally catch a plane to mainland Asia to escape it all.
the thought of 190 mile per hour winds is beyond staggering.
We have a branch office in makati and a warehouse in Clark Air base (or formerly known). I was even caught in a type 3 typhoon years ago when we checked on our branch office.
The RP gets hit regularly by typhoons every damn month, like 12 times in a 6 month span. Even though they get hit and thousands are killed, they simply rebuild. It is what it is..
..unlike weak, limpwristed Americans who need a benefit concert from Sandy and Katrina and start heading to the welfare office.
” unlike weak, limpwristed Americans who need a benefit concert from Sandy and Katrina and start heading to the welfare office.”
well said !
On top of the rain and the storm surge. At that speed, rain drops become bullets.
Katrina - 175 mph wind gusts.
Haiyan - 224 mph wind gusts.
Thats crazy.
If I’m not mistaken, Katrina was nowhere near 175 mph when it made landfall (maybe 125 mph?). I think Andrew was much more powerful at landfall. Katrina was a flooding incident. Andrew was a wind incident.
Id imagine that the safety of the sort of shelter we have in America....just doesnt exist there.
Remember how all the news folks were proclaiming at the time that New Orleans “Dodged the Bullet”?
And then the levees broke.
The idiots on the Today show actually compared this to “Super Storm Sandy” on Friday.
The propaganda continues.
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