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

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.

Well I think its a responsibility that people wear, when they have priveleges of freedom, in democracies whatever kind, representative, proportional, to ensure that corrupt asshats aren't running the show, the courts, and the military and that there isn't a secret military coup running the world and using weather modification weapons, because I don't believe this is natural. PERIOD. And by their actions, they have earned my absolute disbelief and wish that all the corrupt leaders and black ops be thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. To me, this is MURDER ONE, POSSIBLY MULTIPLIED BY UP 65000.

And I light a candle to every one of them and want Rockefeller, Kissinger, George Bush Sr. and all of their minions behind bars.

reply to post by reject

...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

A TV report said 800,000 people were evacuated to "shelters" made of bricks and mortar - the 20-foot waves decimated the shelters. ...The body account is already around 2,500 and the clean-up has barely started.

Kali74
this one being above category 5, a category that doesn't even exist.

Now that statement should be a thread in itself.

lostbook
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.

In many countries, populations double every 20 years. You should see what the graphs of population growth look like. A hockey stick curve just does not describe it.

www.susps.org...

Say 60 years ago (1950), there was a single row of small fisherman village huts dotted across the length of the country. Each village was 1/4 mile across and were one mile apart. Then 20 years later, each half-circle has doubled in size. Each village is now 1/2 mile across. Another 20 years later, they have doubled in size again. Each village is 1 mile across and they have all now joined up to form one super-sprawl across the length of the country.

Places like Singapore are longer little merchant shops and homes stacked on top of each other. They have been demolished to make way for apartment and office blocks.

All that extra population requires food and water to be transported by container ship and then by road. So if that gets disrupted for any reason, it's going to be chaos.

This is entirely different than what's on the news in the Philippines. In fact, the person that made estimates of 10,000+ people dead and about 80% - 90% of things being destroyed in Tacloban is getting a lot of heat because it's not even close. Now, don't get me started on how Al Jazeera is well known for creating propaganda and false imagery, I'm sue those that have been on ATS for many years know this very well but the news in the Philippines claim over 10,000 are injured, and nearly 2000 are missing, and I believe over 1700 are dead. The amount of damage isn't as significant, I don't remember the % estimate.

Right now the guy that made those exaggerated estimates is going through stress debriefing of some sort. It's not as bad as what some of the news agencies are claiming at least as far as the official news goes. I'm glad this typhoon didn't change course by a few degrees because the damages and amount of deaths would have been significantly more. But it's a shame that this had to happen but it's not a scene to unfamiliar in the Philippines.

reply to post by Em2013

...this is entirely different than what's on the news in the Philippines. In fact, the person that made estimates of 10,000+ people dead and about 80% - 90% of things being destroyed in Tacloban is getting a lot of heat because it's not even close. ...the news in the Philippines claim over 10,000 are injured, and nearly 2000 are missing, and I believe over 1700 are dead. The amount of damage isn't as significant ...

The 'official' death toll jumped overnight to 3,621 - the Red Cross "missing" tally rose to 25,000 from 22,000 but could include people who have since been located. But you're right - there are HUGE discrepancies in the reports. I wonder why. I figure the truth is hard to find so I look everywhere and hope some measure of truth might be revealed by cobbling all the different reports together. One explanation might be that so many "evacuation centers" failed - and fudging the numbers is a cover-up.

Even though authorities had evacuated about 800,000 people ahead of the typhoon, the death toll was so high because many evacuation centres - brick-and-mortar schools, churches and government buildings - could not withstand the winds and water surges.

Officials said people who had huddled in these buildings drowned or were swept away.

The MSM reports that mass burials started Thursday, with about 100 bodies - but other reports say the burials started Sunday with 300-500 bodies in one grave alone, in Tacloban.

Mass burials have been conducted in the city since Sunday, residents said.

Tuesday, 12 November 2013. The United Nations said officials in Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the storm, had reported one mass grave of 300 to 500 bodies.

Also btw - AlJazeera was in the middle of it in Tacloban - you should check it out: 09 Nov 2013: VIDEO, Reporter's account of Philippine typhoon

A quick overview:

Philippine typhoon death toll jumps

The death toll from one of the world's most powerful typhoons surged to about 4,000 on Friday, but the aid effort was still so patchy bodies lay uncollected as rescuers tried to evacuate stricken communities across the central Philippines.

…Official confirmed deaths nationwide rose by more than 1,200 overnight to 3,621 on Friday. Adding to the confusion, the United Nations, citing government figures, put the latest overall death toll at 4,460, but a spokeswoman said it was now reviewing the figure.

…The preliminary number of missing as of Friday, according to the Red Cross, rose to 25,000 from 22,000 a day earlier. That could include people who have since been located, it said.

…On Tuesday, Aquino said estimates of 10,000 dead by local officials were overstated and caused by "emotional trauma". Elmer Soria, a regional police chief who gave that estimate to media, was removed from his post on Thursday.

National police spokesman Reuben Sindac said Soria had experienced an "acute stress reaction" and had been transferred to headquarters in Manila. But a senior police official told Reuters he believed Soria was re-assigned because of his unauthorised casualty estimate.

Interesting:

Philippine typhoon death toll 4,460: UN

The United Nations said Friday the death toll from a super typhoon in the Philippines was at least 4,460, citing regional officials, but the national disaster council maintained a much lower figure.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the number of 4,460 was given from the regional taskforce of the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Wednesday. But NDRMMC’s spokesman Reynaldo Balido insisted the official toll from the typhoon that ripped through the central Philippines on November 8 remained at 3,621. “As of 13 November, the government reported that 4,460 people have died,” an OCHA statement said. Asked for the source of the figures, Manila-based OCHA spokeswoman Orla Fagan said:” We are getting it from the operations center of the regional taskforce set up by the NDRMMC.” When asked about the UN’s statement: Balido replied: “Not true.” Then repeated the NDRMMC’s published figure of 3,621. Philippine President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday that he estimated the final death toll would be around 2,500. — AFP

Philippines typhoon death toll doubles

The death toll from a powerful typhoon that swept the central Philippines nearly doubled overnight, reaching 4,000, as helicopters from a US aircraft carrier and other naval ships began flying food, water and medical teams to ravaged regions.

President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster, has been criticised for the slow pace of aid distribution and unclear estimates of casualties, especially in Tacloban, capital of hardest-hit Leyte province.

…The toll, marked up on a whiteboard, is compiled by officials who started burying bodies in a mass grave on Thursday.

[ED. NOTE: Residents report they started mass burials Sunday.

Positively uplifting:

...Susan Tan, whose grocery store and warehouse were completely looted after the typhoon, is despondent but determined to carry on with her life and help others.

She's now using her empty warehouse as a centre from where people can make calls on a satellite phone she got from a friend who works for local telecoms company Smart. There has been no cellphone service in the town since last Friday.

"This was my store. Now's it's a relief centre and a call centre," said Tan, 43. "It was ransacked by panicked ... people desperate for food. There was no way to control them. We had stocked up on food for the Christmas holidays. They took everything, and not just the food. They ransacked my office too, anything they could find. They took away our furniture."

Now, the barren blue shelves are empty. Still it is serving a purpose, with about 100 people queued up outside waiting to make calls. The free calls are limited to one minute each.

…"Although I've been looted and bankrupt by this, I cannot refuse my friends and my town. We need to help each other," she said. "I can't just go to Cebu and sit in the mall while this place is in ruins."

reply to post by soficrow


Thanks for the update, to think such a huge change in report can happen overnight. Perhaps the idea was to overfund the needy for some reason. It wouldn't end well if that were the case and would end up being against their benefit in the end. Perhaps this is why there's a scandal with the one that reported the gross over-estimate? Haven't been paying too much attention since it only affects a very small portion of the Philippines.

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.

Agreed. And what's more, I don't trust some of the pictures emerging from
this story.

reply to post by Em2013

...Perhaps the idea was to overfund the needy for some reason.

I doubt it. It's President Aquino who's downplaying the whole thing. Under-reporting will lose aid money, not generate it. So why is he doing it? To reassure investors? Cover up the fact that his much-publicized preparations may have got a large percentage of 800,000 evacuees killed? Cover up the fact that much needed aid did not get to the people who needed it in the first week? ...Maybe the world's governments have agreed to downplay the typhoon's effects in the Phillipines so they won't be forced to relocate citizens from threatened island nations - a growing crisis.

We need a lot more information to sort out the damage control bs from the truth. Speaking of damage control. "It's normal to have disparity in reported numbers after a disaster." “We do not want to create an issue with the government that’s why we are now closely coordinating with them,“ said Fagan (UN Public Information Officer).

UN: Disparity in death toll is normal

…The NDRRMC (Aquino government) has said that a total of 9,073,804 people in nine regions were affected by “Yolanda”, considered the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall.

The recent Situation Report from UNOCHA (the UN) showed, meanwhile, that aside from the 4,460 deaths, 11.8 million people have been displaced across Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, MIMAROPA, Calabarzon, Bicol, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Caraga.

UNOCHA, as stated in its report, was working in coordination with the DRRMC, Department of Social Welfare and Development .

The government tally shows 1,179 people missing. However, the Philippines Red Cross says it has received 25,000 “tracing requests.”

A spokesman for President Benigno Aquino says the official tallies of dead, injured and missing rely on numbers fed from local governments to provinces and then on to the national authorities. [ED. NOTE: Aquino fired the guy from Tacloban who said 10,000 were dead.]

U.N. agencies say nearly three million people have been displaced by the disaster and hundreds of thousands of them are on the move. [ED. NOTE: UNOCHA's situation report says "11.8 million people have been displaced," not 3 million.]

Incompetence and inaction cause more deaths.

Mr Pulga, 27, a father of two, was one of the first victims of Typhoon Haiyan to be brought to the central hospital of Tacloban in the central Philippines. The hospital had been partly swamped with seawater, losing electricity and most of its supplies. In his time there, Mr. Pulga received next to nothing in terms of medical care. On Friday, after spending five days on a hard gurney with only a saline drip, he died, essentially of a broken leg – shattered, in fact, by a coconut sent rocketing by the wind as Haiyan made landfall.

…Mr Pulga’s death was one of many that could have been easily prevented if the relief effort had been quicker, better organized and more competent. Drinking water, food, medicines — including antibiotics — and medical help were held up for days as rescue teams struggled to operate amid the lawless chaos of a shattered city with too few military or police officers to enforce security and little if any government control.

Death blamed on failed relief effort as much as storm

TACLOBAN, the Philippines — Richard Pulga lay on a hard steel gurney for five days with only a saline drip after being seriously injured in the typhoon that devastated his country.

On Friday, Pulga, 27, died — essentially of a broken leg.

Doctors said the father of two small children could have been saved. Instead, he became a victim of the incompetence and inaction that have plagued relief efforts here for the hundreds of thousands left injured, homeless, hungry and increasingly desperate since the typhoon hit.

…“it was preventable."

Authorities say decomposing bodies "not a health risk."

Survivors in desperate need of aid are also calling for the relief authorities to clear away the bodies of victims, some in body bags, others causing a stench as they decompose in the open air.

As the relief effort continues though, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations have reiterated their advice that the Philippine government should focus their relief efforts on the living, rather than the dead.

"Obviously it's distressing to see bodies on the ground and the government is doing the best it can, but from a health perspective, bodies are not a health risk," said WHO spokesman Nyka Alexander in Manila.

reply to post by Em2013

It's not as bad as what some of the news agencies are claiming at least as far as the official news goes.

Seems Aquino is trying to protect his political reputation. He's in on a "clean up the corruption" ticket, and promised to build infrastructure in "forgotten" areas. He also said there would be "zero casualties" from Super-Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. Turns out - going to "evacuation centres" got people killed, not saved; promised aid is not getting to where it is needed; and the death-and-injury toll is much, much higher than "zero casualties."

This article gives some good background.

…Benito Lim, a professor of political science at Ateneo de Manila University. "(Aquino) is trying to exonerate himself from what he said earlier: 'zero casualties'."

At one point last year, Aquino, the only son of democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino, enjoyed a 74 percent approval rating.

Then a scandal over lawmakers' misuse of public funds erupted, threatening to undermine the platform that got Aquino into office – curbing corruption.

A whistleblower revealed in July that some lawmakers, including the president's allies, were stealing up to half the money being allocated to local projects from discretionary government funds.

Aquino has since been accused of failing to convincingly tackle a culture of political patronage. His popularity rating sank to 49 percent in September.

The challenge now for Aquino, a week after Typhoon Yolanda, is to speed up the flow of aid and rebuild the confidence of a nation shattered by one of its worst natural disasters.

"I think he will not be popular despite the fact that he is trying his best," said Lim.

Also see:

Typhoon highlights weak Philippine infrastructure

Death Toll Update

'Yolanda' death toll nears 4,000 mark
By: Jaime Sinapit, InterAksyon.com
November 17, 2013 8:10 PM

Fatalities from Yolanda, the strongest typhoon ever to hit the Philippines, has climbed to 3,974 as of 12 noon Sunday, the country’s disaster relief agency said.

An additional 1,186 remain missing and 12,544 have been hurt when the typhoon made landfall, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

In his report to NDRRMC, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II said retrieval teams hauled Saturday 780 bodies more in Tacloban City.

However, the NDRRMC failed to indicate in its updated report whether the death count given by Roxas was already included.

Philippine authorities and international aid agencies face a mounting humanitarian crisis, with the number of people displaced by the catastrophe estimated at 4 million, up from 900,000 late last week.

Nearly half a million houses were damaged by the storm, half of them destroyed, according to the United Nations.

Where is China?

China has the capacity to help, and doing so could benefit its own image and influence.

China, with its initial donation of just $100,000, is so far squandering an opportunity to show generosity, decisiveness and leadership in disaster relief.

…there is always an edge of strategic diplomacy to nations' efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance.

Even while they work to comfort the afflicted, governments calculate what is in it for their image and influence. And at least nations' competing to bring help is better than their competing to do harm.

The diplomacy of aid delivery can also illuminate changing patterns of influence, capability and confidence in the regional balance of power – especially when military forces are involved.

Some military capabilities, from heavy-lift aircraft to helicopters to hospital ships, are invaluable for rapid response to natural disasters - they bring in food, drinking water, shelter and medical help.

…China …now has a hospital ship, Peace Ark, used for the same kind of goodwill missions that the crews of American ships like the USNS Mercy have long been familiar with.

…You would think this time that China would be determined to play a major relief role from the outset, promoting a friendly, magnanimous image of its intentions and also denying other countries the opportunity to build closer bonds minus Beijing.

China says it is ready to send rescue and medical teams to the disaster-stricken areas in the Philippines hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan. …and Chinese rescuers will set off for the disaster-hit areas immediately once conditions permit.

I can't believe some people here downplaying the damage wrought by the typhoon. It's the whole city of Tacloban that got washed out and there are other more areas where the typhoon passed. I don't even need to post the photos i've seen, you people who thinks that the reports were exaggerated, use Google, check what Tacloban City looks like before and what it looks like now.

I"m really confused. I keep seeing different 'counts' for dead, injured, missing.
What are the official (if there are any) numbers on this thing??

reply to post by FlyersFan


Scan through my posts above - it's a political thing. The Philippines President Aquino promised "zero casualties" and said evacuation was covered - but the "evacuation centers" flooded and people drowned. Now Aquino's back-pedalling, but down-playing the death toll and damages. The UN is changing their numbers to avoid political problems. Meanwhile, even Aquino's "emergency response" left more than much to be desired - Filipinos have lived with corruption pretty much forever and they're calling foul. ...Inaccurate casualty counts happen in major disasters - counting the dead is a lesser priority than helping the living. But it's a huge mess. The truth may never be known.

When I saw the original estimate of 10,000 dead (or whatever it was), I was not surprised. If anything, I expected that number to grow. An incredibly poor, highly populated, island-based country is not going to fare well against a monster storm like this. Its just not. Even countries that are better off would still have trouble to some extent (like the US with Katrina). I was shocked when they down graded the estimated dead to 2,000. There's no freaking way that's possible. I expect the final total to be similar to that of the Boxing Day Tsunami - never really known because there is just too much devastation.

Update.

Philippine president oversees Haiyan relief efforts
Mon, 18th Nov 2013 06:49

Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Monday inspected more areas battered by Typhoon Haiyan to ensure that aid flowed faster and services were restored as the death toll in the disaster neared 4,000.

Aquino spent the night in Tacloban City in the worst-hit province of Leyte, where he said he would stay until he is satisfied with the relief operation, after the government's initial response was criticized for being too slow.

…The death toll from Haiyan's destruction has reached 3,976, with 1,598 missing and more than 4 million displaced, according to the national disaster relief agency. More than 18,000 were injured.

…Haiyan slammed into the eastern Philippines on November 8, with record winds of more than 300 kilometers per hour. A storm surge of up to 4 metres destroyed more than a million houses.

Are they waiting until there is no chance for the survivors to be alive in the rubble before they go in with backhoes to clear pathways for aid? For all the world government bureaucracy and networks of charities as well as supposedly trained professionals in disaster relief and recovery, there has yet to be a single good example of a smooth operation in the aftermath of any disaster. When all land mass in the world are decimated by disaster, then what? Funding is becoming more limited rather than expanding as they bring in more "professionals" to assess and take charge if thats what you want to call it. Money being transferred hand over fist and yet the basics are still not being met. If there was an actual plan in motion people would be less apt to become desperate and corrupt in the aftermath of a disaster, but when they see no relief in sight, what more could you expect?

I watched footage of the storm surge coming in ....
It reminded me of footage of the tsunami that hit Japan and Fukashima.
I don't know how anyone on the ground could have survived that ...
Without a direct miracle from heaven, the 'dead' numbers have to be huge ...