Food and Water Top Concerns for Philippine Survivors

Monday, November 11, 2013

Food and Water Top Concerns for Philippine Survivors

Relief Efforts Underway in Devastated Philippine Areas

Philippine and U.S. military personnel prepare to load relief goods on a U.S. C-130 plane for victims of Typhoon Haiyan, Villamor Air Base, Nov. 11, 2013.

Simone Orendain

November 11, 2013

MANILLA — In the Central Philippines authorities are struggling to reach many of the some 600,000 people displaced by Super Typhoon Haiyan. Officials anticipate a death toll in the thousands.
At the Villamor Air Force Base in Manila, C130 planes filled with relief goods are headed to one of the hardest hit cities, Tacloban in Leyte Province.
Some relief organizations say their provisions are taking three times longer to get there because so many land routes have been blocked by massive piles of debris from fallen houses and trees.
On the other side of the air field, around 400 people are waiting for a chance to catch a ride on one of the planes headed toward the devastation zone.
Among them is Tito Lucinareo, a father of two boys from a small town 25 kilometers outside Tacloban. He says he did manage to get a call through to one of his brothers who said the children survived the storm. But Lucinareo is not sure if they have food.
He says, “You think about whether your child is eating. Is he hungry? He likes to eat, especially biscuits.”
Lucinareo, his brother and cousins packed bags full of food that they plan to take to their hometown on foot.
Some in Tacloban have resorted to looting with reports of grocery stores and shopping malls being ransacked by people in search of food and clean water. The government said Sunday it would send additional military and police personnel to try to restore order.

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