Soldiers hold back desperate Filipinos trying to escape their typhoon-ravaged region as 3,000 people try to board two aircraft that can only take a few hundred
- - Typhoon Haiyan was a maximum category-five storm with gusts of up to 235mph
- - Authorities say in the city of Tacloban, Leyte, alone, 10,000 could be dead and 'two out
of five bodies' are children
- - Aid agencies say as many as 10million people could be in need of shelter, clean water
and food
- - Mortuaries set up in remaining buildings like churches are overrun with bodies
- - Britain has pledged more than £10 million in aid and support for the Philippines and is
sending war ship to area
- - Team of 12 British surgeons and paramedics sent to the region to help overstretched
medics
- - U.S. will give £12.5m in immediate aid and deployed aircraft carrier USS George
Washington to provide assistance
- - Aid pledged by governments of Australia, Canada, China and Taiwan and UN released
£15million
- - Thousands trying to secure evacuation from city of Tacloban, which has been destroyed
by typhoon
- - Survivors at city airport said they have not eaten in more than a day
PUBLISHED: 17:35 GMT, 12 November 2013 | UPDATED: 20:31 GMT, 12 November 2013
Soldiers were forced to hold back thousands of desperate Filipinos as they rushed to board two military planes that could only evacuate a few hundred people from the typhoon-ravaged region.
About 3,000 Tacloban residents walked for miles to queue for help at the airport but just two planes arrived to take survivors to Manila, the capital of Philippines.
There were scenes of chaos and devastation as families, many of whom contained young children or elderly people, were held back by soldiers.
When the two Philippine Air Force C-130s arrived, people surged forward past a broken iron fence as they tried to secure a seat.
But only a few hundred made it aboard and the rest were left to wait in the rain, with few supplies.
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Typhoon survivors rush to get a chance to board a C-130 military transport plane in Tacloban city after thousands of typhoon survivors swarmed the airport
Desperation: Thousands of Tacloban residents who had walked miles and queued for days are held back by soldiers as they try to rush towards military planes evacuating people to Manila
A small child clings on to a relative as soldiers hold back the jostling crowd, desperate to make it on the flight out of the region
Evacuation: A mother and daughter try to board one of just two planes taking survivors away from Tacloban
Concern: Vulnerable people, including the elderly, children and breastfeeding women queue for hours for a seat on a plane
Distraught: A mother cries after her family failed to take a flight on a C-130 military plane out of Tacloban
Enormous stress: A Filipino woman breaks down in tears as air force soldiers try to hold back residents from entering the airport
Evacuation: An ill baby, attached to a drip, disembarks from a Philippine Air Force C-130 cargo plane at Villamor Airbase
Such as was the competition for places that desperately ill people and very young children were left behind.
Diabetes sufferer Helen Cordial, whose house was destroyed in the typhoon, said: 'I was pleading with the soldiers. I was kneeling and begging because I have diabetes.
'Do they want me to die in this airport? They are stone-hearted.'
Others left behind said supplies were so short at the airport that they had not eaten in over a day.
Thousands of bodies are piling up on the streets after Tacloban and other villages and towns in Leyte Province were flattened by Typhoon Haiyan
Police and soldiers have the grim task of searching through the wreckage for bodies but makeshift mortuaries are so full that body bags are arranged on the street in rows.
Tens of millions of pounds worth of aid has been pledged by countries around the world and agencies say as many as 10million people in the developing country are in need of basic supplies such as shelter, clean water and food.
Thousands of children are feared to have been killed in the category-five storm and one charity worker said two out of every five corpses she had seen were youngsters.
Stranded: Evacuees wait for their flight inside an airport lounge flooded with water four days after the Typhoon Haiyan landed
Left behind: This elderly woman was among thousands of people not allowed on board the first two evacuation planes
Chosen ones: A soldier carries a crying child to board a plane. It is believed the man and woman also carrying children were allowed to board as well
Tears: Mothers held up their babies and children to soldiers in the hope of being chosen for a seat but they were left behind on the tarmac
Clean up: Police and military personnel are removing bodies from the streets of Tacloban as they try to restore order
Victims: The bodies are just a tiny fraction of the death toll from the typhoon and agencies say mass graves are being filled with hundreds of people
'YOU COULD FEEL THE HOUSE SHAKING': BRITISH COUPLE SURVIVE SUPER TYPHOON AND THEN HELP IN AID EFFORT
Stephanie Lewis and boyfriend Seb Hall survived the typhoon by huddling together in a windowless office
A British couple caught in Typhoon Haiyan were forced to huddle together in a windowless room as the storm destroyed whole villages outside.
Stephanie Lewis, 26, and her boyfriend Seb Hall, 29, who runs an internet business from the city of Cebu, were without power and had no idea when the huge typhoon was due to hit.
Miss Lewis said there was nothing they could do but wait for it to pass and hope they survived.
She told The Mirror: 'We had no power from the early morning so were unable to track where the storm was headed.
'All we knew was it was the biggest on record and was heading for us.
'The winds were crazy. You could feel the house shaking.'
The city - the archipelago's second largest - was battered by 147mph winds and a storm surge of 20ft.
After the worst was over, Miss Lewis, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said she went outside and was shocked by the devastation.
Roofs had been ripped from neighbouring houses and trees and electrical posts were blown down.
The couple and Mr Hall's two siblings, who were also in the Philippines when the typhoon hit, are now distributing food and water.
Jake Hall, 24, hunkered down with his brother in their home, but their sister Chelsey, 27, was forced to shelter with a Filipino family on the island of Boracay.
She has only been able to send a few short messages home to say she was safe.
The sibling's father John said it was a 'miracle' all three of his children survived.
He said: 'Chelsey said it was scary enough, but we've only heard from her in short conversation. She's there working for the Red Cross anyway.
'The army and emergency services haven't made it to Boracay yet.
'All we know was that she'd got to higher ground and a Filipino family, which had a well constructed concrete building, took her and some friends in and looked after them.
'The north part of Cebu, where the kids are, is pretty bad and they are helping with the relief effort. Jake has some friends who have lost the roofs of their houses.
'I've been thinking about how we might get help to people. They've got absolutely nothing.
'Our three children have come through like a miracle.'
Rescue effort: The Philippine's Special Reaction Unit join soliders in the search for the bodies of victims of Typhoon Haiyan
Scavenging: A young boy pushing a trolley in search of water passes a coffin containing a victim of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban
Search: Rescuers from the Philippine Coast Guard ride on a life raft during a search and rescue operation in Tacloban
Typhoon victims: Bodies in bags are arranged in rows by military personnel beneath a tent that reads 'I love Tacloban'
Deadly: Members of the Philippine National Police move dozens of bags of bodies of people killed by the devastating storm in Tacloban
Dreadful task: Soldiers pull bags filled with typhoon victims from the floor waters and leave them on higher ground
Many are separated from their families amid the devastation, and all are in desperate need of food, water and shelter.'
In the worst-hit areas, 235mph winds created 20ft waves that are thought to have killed between 10,000 and 15,000 and left 500,000 homeless after their houses were reduced to splinters.
Super-typhoon Haiyan struck with such force on Friday that entire villages were flattened, ships were swept inland and corpses were left hanging from trees.
Desperate survivors of the devastating Philippines typhoon told how they had to steal from the dead to eat.
Lynette Lim, of Save the Children, said: 'We are witnessing the complete devastation of a city. In Tacloban everything is flattened. Bodies litter the street, many, many of which are children. From what I saw, two out of every five bodies was that of a child.
'Children are particularly vulnerable in disasters. We fear for how many children have been washed away in floods, crushed under falling buildings and injured by flying debris.
Please help us: Thousands of children and families are still in desperate need of the basics of shelter, food and clean water
A woman and child get on board an air force rescue plane bound for Cebu Island at an airport in Tacloban City.
Charities are extremely concerned for the children in the typhoon-country, as they are particularly vulnerable
A father carries the lifeless body of his daughter on the way to the morgue after super typhoon Haiyan hit Tacloban City in Leyte province
Children wait for medical airlift in the devastated town of Guiuan, eastern Samar province. Youngsters have been washed away in floods, crushed under falling buildings and injured by flying debris
The Disasters Emergency Committee, made up of 14 UK charities, has made an emergency appeal for funds as fears continue that the death toll from the typhoon will rise and it is estimated that more than 10 million people will be left in need of aid.
The UK is deploying a Royal Navy warship and donating £10 million of humanitarian assistance in aid for the victims, Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Britain will also deploy RAF military transport aircraft to aid recovery efforts, earmarking at least one C-17 cargo plane to move humanitarian aid and large equipment.
David Cameron said: 'We've all seen the appalling devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan, with heart-breaking scenes played across our TV screens.
'Today's Disasters Emergency Committee appeal launch is a vital step to ensure aid agencies can provide essential relief to those most affected by this unprecedented disaster.'
He added: 'I am proud that the British public have always shown an unfailing generosity for helping those in need and I know their response to this appeal will be no different.'
The Prime Minister is also sending a team of 12 British surgeon and paramedics.
Survivors cover their noses from the stench of bodies left on streets of typhoon-ravaged Tacloban city. Families all are in desperate
need of food, water and shelter
Safe delivery: Cheers broke out this morning when 21-year old Emily Ortega gave birth to a baby girl in the city of Tacloban. The expectant mother had to swim through floods
Distressed: A distraught mother cuddles her sick baby aboard a military helicopter
Vulnerable: A child waits with fellow survivors at the airport. Aid agencies say they are particularly
concerned about the elderly, disabled and children
International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: 'The scenes of utter devastation in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan are shocking in their scale and we know that the survivors, especially vulnerable children and women, now face a grim and uncertain future.
'Britain is determined to stand by the Philippines and we have now pledged a total of £10 million to get 800,000 people the food, water and shelter they urgently need.
'On top of this, we are deploying the destroyer HMS Daring and at least one RAF C-17 to the disaster zone to give powerful help to the relief operation and get aid to the areas that are hardest to reach and where the need is greatest.'
Many countries have pledged aid to the Philippines.
The U.S. said it will give £12.5million in immediate aid, as well as deploying the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to provide assistance.
The United Nations have released more than £15million in emergency relief fund money and the World Food Programme has given £1.2million and more than 40 tons of high energy biscuits.
Young boys eat beside the statue of US General Douglas McArthur at the Leyte Landing Memorial in Leyte, Philippines, four days after
the typhoon devastated the region
Help: The British Royal Navy warship HMS Daring docked is being sent to the Philippines with a RAF C-17 plane to aid in relief efforts
On route: The USS Antietam from the George Washington Battle Group has set sail from Hong Kong for the Philippines to help in the
relief effort
Cargo ships washed ashore four days after super typhoon Haiyan hit Anibong town. Dazed survivors begged for help and scavenged for food, water and medicine today
BEFORE: The port and shanty housing in Tacloban city before Friday's catastrophic events. In the worst-hit areas, 235mph winds created 20ft waves that are thought to have killed between 10,000 and 20,000 and left 500,000 homeless
In need: Typhoon survivors take shelter from the rain as they queue up in the hopes of boarding an evacuation flight in Tacloban
Battle for survival: Survivors are desperately trying to find shelter and enough food and clean water in the devastated city of Tacloban
Wanting out: Thousands of typhoon survivors swarmed the airport on Tuesday seeking a flight out, but only a few hundred made it
Poignant: A young child dressed in a Christmas hat walks through the wreckage caused by the super typhoon
The Australian government has pledged £5.9million and sent an emergency medical team and Japan will give £6.2million and a 25 member relief team.
The government in Canada said it will match every dollar donated by individual Canadians, on top of £3million already pledged.
China's initial donation is just £250,000, while Taiwan is giving about £125,000.
The United Nations today began an appeal for about £200million in aid to help people hit by the huge typhoon.
'We've just launched an action plan focusing on the areas of food, health, sanitation, shelter, debris removal and also protection of the most vulnerable with the government and I very much hope our donors will be generous,' humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters in Manila
DEC chief Salah Saeed told BBC Breakfast: 'There is a staggering number of people who need our help at the moment.
'The priority at the moment is reaching those in remote areas. We are obviously seeing pictures of people who have already been reached and those images that are before us are really staggering.
Hungry: Typhoon victims queue for free rice at a businessman's warehouse in Tacloban, as aid agencies warned about food shortages in the city
Makeshift: The dire shortage of shelter in Leyte province has left survivors forced to use the wreckage of houses
In shock: Thousands of children have died in the disaster and aid agencies are warning they are particularly vulnerable
Alone: A young boy uses the remains of some parts of a house to shield him from the rain in Tacloban city
'But we also have to think of those in remote islands, in remote villages, where we are unable to see what their conditions are.
'The priority, of course, is to reach those. The second is to make sure that we get food, water and shelter to them.
'It is a huge task but it is possible and we need help as soon as possible. We are urging people to log on to our website and help in any way that they can.'
The USS George Washington, which carries 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft, has also been deployed by America to help distribute aid and evacuate injured survivors.
Handicap International said it was sending a team of emergency specialists to support the organisation's staff already working in the country. These specialists will help the most vulnerable individuals, such as people with disabilities, older people and children.
'The devastation is worse than in Bandah Aceh, Indonesia, following the 2004 tsunami,' Edith van Wijngaarden, the charity's programme director in the Philippines, said.
Supplies: Members of the Japanese Disaster Relief Team carry goods as they arrive to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Militaries and iinternational groups are rushing assistance to the region, but little has arrived
Destroyed: Cars, vans, trees and houses have all been wrecked by the typhoon - one of the strongest storms ever recorded
'I'm particularly worried about the most vulnerable individuals. When nothing is left standing and the local infrastructure has been destroyed, people with disabilities, older people and children are particularly vulnerable.'
Tim Harding, from Sunderland, said he was one of many foreigners who were volunteering at a Manila Red Cross centre.
Mr Harding said he had planned to have a holiday with his wife, who is originally from the Philippines, but it had instead become a volunteer mission.
'It's good to see everyone getting on, doing a job where race, nationality, income level, nothing matters at all,' he said.
'There's only one priority here and that's to get together, get stuck in and do the greater good.'
Mr Harding said he would help wherever he could for the next few weeks, a mindset shared by other foreigners hailing from not only the UK, but elsewhere in Europe and the world.
'There's a lot of panic going on here. Although we just got some good news a few minutes ago that a three-year-old child had actually been rescued in the debris at a place in Tacloban city. There was a big cheer that went up.'
Repairs: In Tacloban, a survivor reconstructs his destroyed house amid scenes of utter devastation
Even as families began to grieve for their dead, they faced a grim battle to find shelter and forage for food and clean water.
Dazed survivors walked the streets ‘like zombies looking for food’ while looters ransacked shops and mobs attacked aid trucks loaded with food, tents and water.
Reports of lawless gangs targeting ATMs and electrical shops forced President Benigno Aquino to deploy police and army troops to the area to restore calm.
He sent 'a column of armoured vehicles' to Tacloban to show the 'government's resolve and to stop this looting.'
Many areas were left without clean water, electricity or food and relief workers said some regions were cut off for days after the storm hit.
The death toll may soar once the true extent of the damage is known.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he told Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario that the United States is fully committed to helping the Philippines recover from one of the most powerful typhoons on record.
An aerial shot from a Philippines Air Force helicopter shows the devastation left by typhoon Haiyan in Guiuan, Eastern Samar province, central Philippines
Blown inland: A ship lies among the ruins of a built-up area of Tacloban after the vessel was swept inland. This photograph was taken by the Philippines Air Force
Reports from one town showed apocalyptic scenes of destruction in another region that has not been reached by rescue workers or the armed forces.
'The situation is bad, the devastation has been significant. In some cases the devastation has been total,' Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras told a news conference.
The United Nations said officials in Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the storm on Friday, had reported one mass grave of 300-500 bodies.
More than 600,000 people were displaced by the storm across the country and some have no access to food, water, or medicine, the UN says.
Flattened by surging waves and monster winds up to 235 mph (378 kph), Tacloban was relying almost entirely for supplies and evacuation on just three military transport planes flying from nearby Cebu city.
Haiyan is estimated to have destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of structures in its path as it tore into the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar. The damage to the coconut- and rice-growing region was expected to amount to more than 3 billion pesos ($69 million), Citi Research said in a report, with 'massive losses' for private property.
Most of the damage and deaths were caused by huge waves that inundated towns and swept away coastal villages in scenes that officials likened to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
A battered town in Samar province in central Philippines. Dazed survivors begged for help and scavenged for food, water and medicine
on Monday, threatening to overwhelm military and rescue resources
Ships that washed ashore into a coastal community after Typhoon Haiyan hit the province of Leyte in central Philippines
City of the dead: Dazed survivors survey the damaged houses in Tacloban city, Leyte province. At least 10,000 people are believed to
have died there
This image taken by astronaut Karen L. Nyberg and released by NASA shows Super Typhoon Haiyan from the International Space
Station yesterday
International aid agencies said relief resources in the Philippines were stretched thin after a 7.2 magnitude quake in central Bohol province last month and displacement caused by a conflict with Muslim rebels in southern Zamboanga province.
Teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, added: ‘Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or losing their families. People are becoming violent.'
Despite mass burials, the dead remain piled by roads and trapped under wreckage. Families clawing at the ruins to find survivors or food were overpowered by the reek of the rotting bodies.
Village councillor and father-of-four Edward Gualberto said he stepped on corpses as he took food from the remains of their homes.
Loss: A mother weeps beside the dead body of her son at a chapel in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban
A ship was washed ashore in the huge storm. Surging sea water strewed debris for miles and survivors said the devastation was like a tsunami
Villagers walk past a body of victim laying on a pier in the super typhoon devastated city of Tacloban, Leyte province
Children pull sacks of goods they recovered from abandoned stores as they go past the rubble of houses in Tacloban
A woman mourns in front of her husband's dead body, which lies no the street under tarpaulin alongside other bodies
An injured Filipino boy stands in front of the rubble of houses in Tacloban - destroyed by the typhoon that has left thousands of people dead
Terrifying: Filipino children are seen in the city of Tacloban, Leyte. Behind them is a scene of devastation with homes flattened and debris lying in the street
Survivors queued for handouts of rice, covering their faces with rags to keep the stench of death out.
Shopkeepers said looters forced their way into stores that had survived the storm, only to be ransacked. There were reports of ATM machines being broken open.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said the devastation was overwhelming, adding: ‘It’s really horrific. It’s a great human tragedy.’
An average of 20 major storms or typhoons, many of them deadly, hit the Philippines each year and it is particularly vulnerable because it is often the first major landmass for the storms after they build over the Pacific Ocean.
The poverty-stricken country has already endured a year of earthquakes and floods, with no fewer than 24 disastrous weather events.
The Philippines suffered the world's strongest storm of 2012, when Typhoon Bopha left about 2,000 people dead or missing on the southern island of Mindanao.
The Philippines has known disaster at the hands of mother nature as recently as 2011 when typhoon Washi killed 1,200 people, displaced 300,000 and destroyed more than 10,000 homes.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
TO donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee's Philippines Appeal, visit www.dec.org.uk, call the hotline on 0370 60 60 900, or go to any high street bank or Post Office. You can also donate £5 by texting the word SUPPORT to 70000. Stay up to date with developments at www.twitter.com/decappeal or at www.facebook.com/DisastersEmergencyCommittee
