Death toll after Philippines typhoon could reach 10,000, according to local officials

Fox News ^ | 11-9-13 | n/a

[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.”

[RPTMS]

Take a boat out onto the sea during a typhoon. What could possibly go wrong?

[RegulatorCountry]

Recollections of Hazel according to a few survivors of Ocean Isle, NC, Our State Magazine:

http://www.ourstate.com/hazel/

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Alex, looked like the eye made a direct hit on Cebu City.

How did you fare?

Prayers being sent your way...

[Rodney Dangerfield]

The people of Olongapo/Subic Bay actually rebuilt much of the city and the AFB after Pinatubo.

[octex]

have all our FReepers in the Philippines been heard from??
****************************
Haven’t seen any postings from AlexW yet. I believe he’s on Cebu, about 100 miles SW of Tacloban, where they are saying there were many deaths. .....Cebu must have been hit, too, because of the size of the typhoon. Prayers up.

[AlexW]

“Alex, looked like the eye made a direct hit on Cebu City.”
___________________________________________

My understanding is that the eye passed, as predicted, just off the north end of Cebu. Cebu City is in the middle of the island, on the east coast.
We are about another quarter of the way south.
The last time I saw the eye on Typhoon2000 sat photos, there was a very large diameter of dark red around the eye. We were within that red, but we had no serious problems.
The strongest was around daylight this morning.
Cebu City had it worse, but not a direct hit.
Our power comes from a large coal powered station on the south side of the city. Power was out only during last night, maybe 8 hours.

[Ditter]

When I read Issac's Storm, I was electrified! It was like hearing my grandfather talk about his experiences all over again. I was so young when I began hearing my grandfather talk about the Galveston storm that I felt like I had experienced it myself.

I remember hearing that the author of that book used some interviews from storm survivors that had been kept in the Galveston Library. I can attest that the book was correct because I heard it from a survivor myself.

[SisterK]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting.

[RegulatorCountry]

I’ve had several weeklong summer vacations in one of those five out of 357 houses on Oak Island that survived Hazel. Knotty pine tongue and groove paneling, stout but utterly unpretentious and, yep, pink asbestos siding on the exterior. The stories that place could tell. Fantastic view, right in the duneline, they don’t let you build there anymore, just the survivors grandfathered in, irreplaceable. Can’t be rebuilt. Time capsule.

[SisterK]

A week vacation in a historical house on the island sounds like an excellent way to decompress.
Provided there are no hurricanes en route.

[Myrddin]

Good to see you check in. Zoraida is the next storm lining
up on the same track as Yolanda. Hang in!