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 ...
If this storm hit NY/NJ - depending on how fast or slow it was moving - there would be not much left. Yes, they are idiots.
It’s the only basis of comparison that they have. They were deeply traumatized, that’s only supposed to happen to ignorant southerners and foreigners, not them. There was some dummy on the live thread here claiming that Sandy was a Category 6. If you were out of the way of the surge it was a run-of-the-mill storm. Trouble was all the old construction in lowlying areas that was nowhere close to hurricane code. The damage far outstripped the severity of the storm because of it.
I hope I’m wrong about this but comparing this to Katrina imagine people who care about recovery and helping others ten times more than then but a government that cares ten times less.
Galveston and there was this Hurricane called the “Labor Day” Hurricane. Like back in 1935 that was supposedly the strongest on record. Hurricane Camille in 1969. The top three hurricanes evah.
Buy a boat.
I remember Camille. I had just left Keesler AFB, a short time before it hit Biloxi, Miss.
He did check in already.
I suspect most of the victims didn't have the means to do that.
Hurricane Hazel from the 1950s is still a painful memory to North Carolina. Then (late 1990’?) there were 3 hurricanes in a row and just about everything east of I-95 was underwater.
Its a tragedy they kicked out the American base at Clark.
It would have made a huge difference in this crisis.
(1990’s) proof reader broken
I suspect that the indirect casualty rate (from death, disease and violence) will be FAR higher.
It’s a huge place. A majority of it are just buildings left to rot since the Pinatubo eruption. And BTW, the Americans were not “kicked out”..it was Mt Pinatubo that did it. Good place when you’re out drinking beer as there are lots of expat vet legion halls operating close to the place.
“have all our FReepers in the Philippines been heard from??”
Probably not with all communications down. I have a dear friends whose entire family still lives somewhere in Albay province, no word yet. So very sad.
i recall reading in ISSAC’S STORM that around 0200 the ENTIRE island of galveston was 20 feet under water.
The story of the orphanage is absolutely heart-breaking.
“Earthquakes and typhoons. Quite the paradise.”
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Of course...What is life without a little shake, rattle, and blow?
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