“We need help!” is the sad handwritten sign hanging outside a shuttered church in the Philippine town of Tacloban surrounded, as Reuters reports, by uncollected corpses and canyons of debris. Demand for relief is huge and despite 66 tons of supplies having landed since Saturday, they are not reaching those who need them the most as “people are roaming around the city, looking for food and water,” because aid trucks from the airport struggle to enter the city because of the stream of people and vehicles leaving it. “People are angry. They are going out of their minds,” warned one aid-worker as relief was delayed due to security concerns “there might be a stampede,” after dark. The terrible state of affairs is summed up by on aid worker, “there is nothing left to loot… even if you have money there is no food to buy. There is nothing here.” Police are trying to enforce a curfew…
Some context… (via @colinjones)
The Human Side…
Tacloban city administrator Tecson Juan Lim says the death toll in this city alone “could go up to 10,000.”
At least a dozen U.S. and Philippines military cargo planes arrived on Monday, with the Philippine air force saying it had flown in about 60,000 kg (66 tons) of relief supplies since Saturday. But the demand is huge and the supplies aren’t reaching those who need it most.
“People are roaming around the city, looking for food and water,”
…
Pedrosa, the government aid worker, said security concerns prevented supplies from being handed out after dark.
“There might be a stampede,” he said.
The aid truck was guarded by soldiers toting assault rifles. “It’s risky,” said Jewel Ray Marcia, a Philippine army lieutenant who led the unit.
“People are angry. They are going out of their minds.”
…
Earlier on Monday, said Pedrosa, soldiers fired warning shots into the air to stop people stealing fuel from a petrol station.
…
People were still emptying one warehouse of rice and loading it onto carts and motorcycles. No police or soldiers stopped them.
A handwritten sign pinned to a makeshift police checkpoint near a looted department store warned of an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
But there is another reason the looting had abated.
“There is nothing left to loot,” said Pedrosa.
…
Officials attribute the high death toll to the many people who stayed behind to protect their property and were swept away in a storm surge of water and lacerating debris.
…
“My house just dissolved in the water,” she said.
Saraza now struggles to feed her children.
…
“My house is destroyed,” he said. “Even if you have money there is no food to buy. There is nothing here.”
The Costs…
Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared a state of calamity to speed aid to communities ravaged by super Typhoon Haiyan
…
The government has 18.7 billion pesos ($429 million) to fund reconstruction
…
“The 18.7 billion pesos the president mentioned is probably just an initial amount because it’s not going to be enough,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc., the nation’s largest lender. “Given still low interest rates and huge amounts of liquidity in the domestic market, the government may consider selling bonds to fund the rebuilding.”
…
The state of calamity will “accelerate the efforts of the government to render aid and to rehabilitate the provinces ravaged by Yolanda,”
…
Haiyan’s total economic impact may reach $14 billion, about $2 billion of which will be insured, according to a report by Jonathan Adams, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Industries, citing Kinetic Analysis Corp.
Gross domestic product in areas hit by the typhoon may decline as much as 8 percent next year, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a mobile-phone message, citing preliminary estimates. The regions affected account for about 12.5 percent of the nation’s output, he said.
     |
via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/-pEGispHoZE/story01.htm Tyler Durden