Survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan are picking up the broken pieces of their towns and homes, but three days after the strongest storm in recorded history hit the Philippines, the challenge of all challenges has just begun.
Searching for missing loved ones who may be buried, dead or alive, under the rubble.
Officials have estimated that nearly 10,000 people may have been killed in the super storm and that number is expected to rise according to the Red Cross.
“There are too many people dead,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. “We have bodies in the water, bodies on the bridges, bodies on the side of the road.”
In addition to coping with the great loss of life in the storm’s aftermath, survivors are also trying to cope with a lack of food, shelter, medicine and water. Responders and aid workers are having trouble getting emergency supplies to hard hit areas that are littered with debris and cut off by fallen power lines and trees.
Aid workers are worried the grim abundance of corpses will create health risks for survivors, who are drinking water from underground wells without knowing if it’s been contaminated.
Magina Fernandez, who was trying to get out of Tacloban at the city’s crippled airport, described the situation there as “worse than hell.”
“Get international help to come here now — not tomorrow, now,” she said, directing some of her anger at Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who toured some of the hardest-hit areas Sunday.
Our prayers are with the Philippines at this time.
SOURCE: CNN | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
