Posted on 11/12/2013 7:26:05 PM PST by SeekAndFind
One of the fiercest typhoons ever recorded has devastated the central Philippines, leaving entire cities and towns in ruins and as many as 10,000 people dead. After gashing six provinces, Typhoon Haiyan veered to the northwest into the South China Sea, and weakened to a tropical storm near the border of Vietnam and southern China.
Aid groups are struggling to reach the hardest-hit areas, where food and drinkable water are difficult to find.
The United States and several other countries are sending supplies and rescue personnel to the region. The first U.S. aid and military personnel flew on Monday from Manila to Tacloban, one of the worst-hit areas.
The aid effort is being hampered by looting, as mobs not only grabbed food and water from stores, but also took consumer items like TVs, washing machines and refrigerators.
The fast-moving storm slammed into Leyte Island from the east on Friday. By Sunday, as the scale of the destruction became clear, Philippine authorities said it is near certain the death toll will rise substantially.
President Benigno Aquino declared a region-wide state of calamity. Offers of help came from as far away as the White House.
In a statement Sunday, President Barack Obama expressed America's sorrow and pledged "significant" humanitarian assistance. U.S. military assets were deployed Saturday to assist in the search for survivors.
By early Monday, the storm began losing strength as it came ashore in Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province. Forecasters expect it to weaken to a low depression later in the day in southern China, where heavy rain has begun to fall.
In hard-hit Tacloban city Sunday, a Philippine community of 220,000 residents, reporters saw scores of flattened buildings and corpses hanging from trees and scattered along roadways flooded by a 4-meter storm surge. Looters in the wrecked city foraged Sunday for food, water and fuel, as the government began relief efforts and international aid began to materialize.
Most other communities along the storm's path remained without communications.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders prepared Sunday to deploy dozens of medical personnel and logistic experts to neighboring Cebu Island in the coming days, along with 200 tons of medical and relief items.
But the group's relief organizers, along with those from United Nations offices in Manila, said they expect access to the hardest-hit areas to be limited for days because of wrecked infrastructure and communications links.
At the Vatican Sunday, Pope Francis urged the faithful to pray in silence for the typhoon's victims. He said he feels close to the Philippines, and he urged church followers and others to offer generous assistance to those impacted by the huge storm.
I am AMAZED that good news made the news!! Huzzah for Vietnam. They could use some good news, I think.
Well, just as we thought that the worse is over for the Philippines, along comes another one:
EXCERPT:
Even as aid workers and emergency officials struggled to make their first contact with many typhoon-hit parts of the country after more than three days, a new tropical depression called Zoraida made landfall about 11 a.m. (10 p.m. Monday ET), in the southeastern province of Mindanao, the national weather agency reported.
Although Zoraida was only a tropical depression carrying maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, it was moving northwest — directly over the devastated island chain — at only 18 mph, much more slowly than Haiyan, and it wasn’t expected to leave Philippine territory until Thursday morning.
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The above is a small storm so, not much to worry about.
Prayers to all the folks affected by the storm. Probably because Haiyan cooled the atmosphere and used all that glo-bull warming to power it’s own self, leaving not enough hot air for Zoraida to get too strong. Won’t stop georgiee girl clooney from calling us deniers dumbasses. Uh, hello kettle.
Aid groups are struggling to reach the hardest-hit areas, where jobs and health care benefits are difficult to find.
Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia have been looking on in astonishment, and countries are sending envoys to see if things are really as bad as they sound. Some have come away realizing things are actually worse.
There is no aid effort. The DNC eye of the storm is massive, and the GOPe Leftist pressure system that is aiding all of it is being strengthened by low pressure pockets of looters of the public coffers.
The slow-moving storm slammed into Washington from the West about eight years ago, building into a massive blow-out by five years ago. From then it moved on and got worse, causing major damage. So far the death toll is unknown. We may never know the full extent of the damage to our economy and individual families.
President Barack Obama declared a nation-wide state of calamity. Tea Party members, gun owners, and the Christian church members of our nation have been targeted as the cause of all the problems.
George Bush could not be reached for comment. He is still recovering from being beaten up for five full years by a big mouth idiot and his fellow travelers.
One wonders when the American public will tire of this storm on the order of how they tired of Katrina in a matter of hours.
Obama has had five years, and he's the biggest blow hard on record for this hemisphere.
Unnamed sources unexpectedly confirmed late Tuesday evening, this guy really sucks! In fact, he sucked all along.
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