Victims of Typhoon Haiyan still waiting for aid

TACLOBAN, Philippines // The day after Typhoon Haiyan struck the eastern Philippine coast, a team of 15 doctors and logistics experts was ready to fly to the worst-hit city to help.

On Tuesday, five days into what could be the country’s deadliest disaster, they were still waiting to leave.

Aid is coming to Tacloban: medical supplies, pallets of water and food piled on lorries, planes and ferries, sent by the Philippine government and countries around the world. But the scale of the disaster and challenges of delivering the assistance mean few in this city have received any help.

A team from Doctors Without Borders, complete with medical supplies, arrived in Cebu Island on Saturday looking for a flight to Tacloban, but hadn’t left by Tuesday. A spokesman for the group said it was “difficult to tell” when it would be able to leave.

“We are in contact with the authorities, but the airport is only for the Philippines military use,” said Lee Pik-kwan.

At the medics’ intended destination, it was getting out that was the problem. Thousands of people hoping for rescue camped at the airport and ran onto the tarmac when planes came in, surging past a broken iron fence and a few soldiers and police trying to control them. Only a few hundred made it aboard.

“We need help. Nothing is happening,” said Aristone Balute, 81. “We haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon.”

Her clothes were soaked from the rain, and tears streamed down her face.

Bodies still littered the streets of the city, where the United Nations fears 10,000 people could have died. The UN humanitarian chief on Tuesday appealed for US$301 million in international aid to help those affected.

“There is a huge amount that we need to do. We have not been able to get into the remote communities,” Valerie Amos said in Manila. “Even in Tacloban, because of the debris and the difficulties with logistics and so on, we have not been able to get in the level of supply that we would want to. We are going to do as much as we can to bring in more.”

Logistics and the storm’s aftermath were not the only obstacles to delivering aid. Philippine troops killed two communist insurgents who attacked an aid convoy en route to Tacloban on Tuesday.

The presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said relief goods were getting into the city, and the supply should increase in coming days now that the airport and a bridge to the island were open.

“We are not going to leave one person behind – one living person behind,” he said. “We will help, no matter how difficult, no matter how inaccessible.”

Doctors in Tacloban said they were desperate for medicine. Beside the ruined airport tower, at a small makeshift clinic with shattered windows, army and air force medics said they had treated around 1,000 people for cuts, bruises, lacerations and deep wounds.

“It’s overwhelming,” said the air force captain Antonio Tamayo. “We need more medicine. We cannot give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none.”

The official death toll from the disaster rose to 1,774 on Tuesday, though authorities have said they expect that to rise markedly. They fear estimates of 10,000 dead might be low. More than 9 million people have been affected across a large swath of the country, many of them made homeless.

The loss of life appears to be concentrated in Tacloban and surrounding areas, including a portion of Samar island that is separated from Leyte island by a strait. It is possible that other areas are devastated, with survivors unable to get through the region’s crippled communications and transportation systems.

Most Tacloban residents spent the night under pouring rain wherever they could – in the ruins of destroyed houses, in the open along roadsides and shredded trees. Some slept under tents brought in by the government or relief groups.

“There is no help coming in. They know this is a tragedy. They know our needs are urgent. Where is the shelter?” said Ms Balute’s granddaughter, Mylene, who was also at the airport. “We are confused. We don’t know who is in charge.”

* Associated Press with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse