Philippines: way more than 10,000 dead - bodies piled in heaps

Catholic Online and Al Jazeera reports on the aftermath of the typhoon in the Phillipines seem to differ from the Western MSM. Maybe it's an agenda thing. Catholic Online says reports from the ground indicate Aquino is very mistaken in saying the death toll would be about 2,000 to 2,500. The article has a GRAPHIC video and amazing, frightening pictures. Al Jazeera's report is fairly comprehensive and reports that the Red Cross lists 22,000 people as missing while Google currently lists some 65,500 - but cautions that these lists are not reliable indicators of deaths as people are being found.

President Benigno Aquino III raised eyebrows yesterday when he said that the death toll could be lower than the original estimates of 10,000. He suggested the toll would be about 2,000 to 2,500. Images and reports from the ground suggest that he is woefully mistaken.

...As many as 2 of every 5 dead is a child.

...The stench of the dead is overpowering. Everyone wears a mask to help, but the smell cannot be avoided.

Looting and panic in Philippines as death toll climbs

... city administrator Tecson John Lim ...said 90 percent of the coastal city of 220,000 people had been destroyed, with only 20 percent of residents receiving aid. Houses were now being looted because warehouses were empty, he said.

"The looting is not criminality. It is self-preservation," Lim told Reuters.

...The preliminary number of missing, according to the Red Cross, is 22,000, but Pang noted that figure could include people who have since been located.

Google, which has set up websites to help people share and look for information about missing persons during catastrophes, currently lists some 65,500 people as missing from the typhoon.

But Google staff warned against reading too much into the data, pointing out that a similar website set up after the Japanese tsunami in 2011 listed more than 600,000 names, far higher than the final death toll of nearly 20,000.

More the 670,000 people have been displaced by the storm and nearly 12 percent of the population directly affected, according to U.N. estimates.

I was surprised this morning, when the CBS news said that the estimates will be much lower than 10,000. More like 2,000 to 2,500 hundred. With everything else I've read and seen, it is just devastating.

I really hope it is only that many, but I fear the higher reports coming from elsewhere will be right.

I feel so bad for them, and wish I could do more.

Well thats nature for you. Tempt it by cramming millions of people into a hurricane/typhoon prone area or region that is not ready for a hurricane/typhoon, and youll end up with something like this.

Nature happens.

It shouldnt be surprising to anyone.

Initial numbers would have to be high in order to get the world's attention, which they did. It's logical to think that a number of people were swept out to sea during the storm. However, in taking a count of actual bodies, the numbers will drop. I'm confident that it will take a while for numbers to be tallied anywhere close to reality, just like in the boxing day tsunami.

Thoughts and prayers for all who are affected. I'm hoping and praying that diseases and epidemics will not break out even though we know that in some places conditions are ripe for such to happen.

This is very sad indeed. Nowadays, it seems, that there's a major deadly storm every year whereas it used to be every 5 years or so. My major fear is that things will get even worse. Category 5 will become the norm! It's even being reported on the news that storms will be getting worse in the coming years. This storm is just the beginning, it seems.

Is there a boat or a plane Any where taking off from USA to Philippines? That either costs little money to board, or I can work for the ride??

It is the same scam they did during Haiti event. Drum up the numbers and sucker in as much money as they can to commit fraud and get rich.

JBA2848
It is the same scam they did during Haiti event. Drum up the numbers and sucker in as much money as they can to commit fraud and get rich.

Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night with your money secure in your wallet.

Those dead people are just dummies and they constructed fake demolished buildings just to grab at your disposable income, right? Because staging island-wide apocalypses is the easiest way to make money. Right?!

CaticusMaximus
Well thats nature for you. Tempt it by cramming millions of people into a hurricane/typhoon prone area or region that is not ready for a hurricane/typhoon, and youll end up with something like this.

Nature happens.

It shouldnt be surprising to anyone.

Thank you, Mr. Sensitive. There is a time and place to discuss your politics of moving people out of coastal areas to reduce insurance subsidies... this isn't the time or place.

Some ATS members have family and friends there, you know.

reply to post by Cuervo


No but people try to take advantage of others when disaster strikes. And it is very evident with the way this story has gone so far that it is being blown up to create a environment for fraud. Ten thousand dead the largest storm in history. Well I never seen wood framed buildings survive 230 mph winds. Honesty goes a long way. Maybe they should try some on this story.

And I know what it is like. Hit in Florida by two category 5 in one week. Over a month without power. And a government that wanted to do nothing but give you bottled water and ice. If you wanted to wait in the day long line to get it. Tree companies paid for by FEMA will remove your tree if you have 500 or a 1000 dollars in cash. Blue tarps to the rescue. Really? They tore the first time the wind blew.

And I hope Haiti was a eye opener for people to question all this crap. So take it with a grain of salt people knowing what is going on in the minds of criminals.

JBA2848
reply to post by Cuervo

 

No but people try to take advantage of others when disaster strikes. And it is very evident with the way this story has gone so far that it is being blown up to create a environment for fraud. Ten thousand dead the largest storm in history. Well I never seen wood framed buildings survive 230 mph winds. Honesty goes a long way. Maybe they should try some on this story.

And I know what it is like. Hit in Florida by two category 5 in one week. Over a month without power. And a government that wanted to do nothing but give you bottled water and ice. If you wanted to wait in the day long line to get it. Tree companies paid for by FEMA will remove your tree if you have 500 or a 1000 dollars in cash. Blue taros to the rescue. Really? They tore the first time the wind blew.

edit on 13-11-2013 by JBA2848 because: (no reason given)

You're free to use whatever logic you like to reconcile your inability/unwillingness to help or show love towards those in pain but don't try to talk others out of it.

They can't even drink their own water because corpses are clogging it up with feces and blood. Air is even hard to come by when you are surrounded by the stinky lifeless masses that used to be your friends, family, neighbors, and the guy who unlocked your car when you forgot your keys. These are real people, not some HAARP conspiracy to collect money. This isn't the 700 Club.

A friend is currently in Manila, She was saying many people are getting shipped over there temporally...what is worse is disaster like that is perfect spot for evil people to human traffic. Disgusting but true.

Mean while... someone is crying their food stamps are cut to help these outsiders.

reply to post by Cuervo


And to show you why I question anything that comes from there. Two Admirals of the Pacific Fleet fired for bribes and prostitution from billionaire.

rt.com...

Maybe you should ask Leonard Francis from Singapore to help out. He has extra money now because the people he was bribing are gone now. The corruption between the US and China war for this area is just too much to trust any information that comes from there.

And it is not a matter of helping it is the knowledge that it will never go where you think it should. They will use this to bribe and buy control of the area and try to influence the politics and corruption in the area. And it will not end up in the hands that need it or the hands people wanted it to go to. Just like Haiti. Warehouses full of donated supplies thrown away years later that was never even given to the people there.

reply to post by Cuervo


No clue where youre getting anything about politics from my post, because it had nothing to do with it. Youre trying to creating a strawman.

~200,000 people die every single day. Sorry if Im not bubbling up with tears over a temporary single day 5% spike above average. Hell for all we know it could have been a below average day when this happened already.

Im just looking at the situation dispassionately from a detached perspective. Typhoons have happened before and killed many, and will happen again while killing many, especially in prone areas that ignore the danger at worst, and fully accept the risk at best.

Shouldnt surprise anyone.

But dont let me get in the way of your alls blubbering over completely natural occurrences. Knock yourselves out.

Estimates are to make people feel better and nothing more. After this truly horrifying event, does anyone really believe that in 24 hours the can account for every granny who lives in the back half of squat?

reply to post by soficrow


Give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

This wasn't a sucker punch after all like an earthquake.

In this high tech day & age of cellphones and the internet, they knew this beast was coming for about a week.

That area has a history of tragic natural disasters and they were still probably on their toes because of the recent earthquake.

That's plenty time for the government to mobilize and evacuate its citizens.

Maybe this is what happened and that is why we have the more "acceptable" 2,500 dead; looking at the footage and pix, the population does seem thinned out.

Maybe the government got them out in those couple days before it hit.

On the other hand, if this is not the case, we may never know the total death toll because if the water washed ashore massive ships way inland...we can't rely on the body count.

A lot of those that were there for the storm who were interviewed claimed most of their family died; if the government hadn't enforced evacuations, their estimate wouldn't make sense.

If you're right, someone dropped the ball and have blood on their hands.

CaticusMaximus
Im just looking at the situation dispassionately from a detached perspective.

This is obvious.

As far as the politics, it is a standard Libertarian talking point.

Ron Paul:

I mean, this is the kind of dilemma that wouldn’t happen in a society that didn’t expect the government to solve our problems. But to expect the government and people who aren’t benefiting to pay for me to live on the beach and get my house blown down, that’s not morally correct and it’s not in the Constitution, if that’s what we’re supposed to be doing.

Given your Ron Paul signature, that's where I thought you were going with that. If not, I humbly (no sarcasm there) take it back.

My opinion of your casual attitude does not change, though.

JBA2848
reply to post by Cuervo

 

And to show you why I question anything that comes from there. Two Admirals of the Pacific Fleet fired for bribes and prostitution from billionaire.

rt.com...

Maybe you should ask Leonard Francis from Singapore to help out. He has extra money now because the people he was bribing are gone now. The corruption between the US and China war for this area is just too much to trust any information that comes from there.

And it is not a matter of helping it is the knowledge that it will never go where you think it should. They will use this to bribe and buy control of the area and try to influence the politics and corruption in the area. And it will not end up in the hands that need it or the hands people wanted it to go to. Just like Haiti. Warehouses full of donated supplies thrown away years later that was never even given to the people there.

edit on 13-11-2013 by JBA2848 because: (no reason given)

When one of us donates a third of our income to a private organization that we know is funneling money to the victims in a prompt manner, we don't care how many anecdotes about corruption you post.

It doesn't matter. If it did, nobody would help anybody anytime anywhere. Refer to Mad Max for example.

Dont attach oneself to one disaster. How many of these are we to jump for? Haiti? Japan? And all the others?

If someone wants to help this one...pack a second and 3 bag. Because by the time you get there to help...there will another thread here about helping for the next disaster when we forget about this one....Like all the others.

And I assure you...Japan, Haiti and starving African famine victims...will still be there in need anyway...when you move on to the next.

Sad...but true

reply to post by CaticusMaximus


They are more than adapted to typhoons, people have lived there for 10's of thousands of years... but you're talking about 2 record breakers in 11 months with this one being above category 5, a category that doesn't even exist.