By Andrew Stevens and Paula Hancocks, CNN
Tacloban, Philippines (CNN) — No building in this coastal city of 200,000 residents appears to have escaped damage from Super Typhoon Haiyan.
Most roads were impassable Saturday; all communications except for satellite phones were down; medical supplies, food and water were scarce; and there were reports of looting.
And that was far from the worst of it.
Death toll likely exceeds 1,000
People who had walked, sometimes for hours, to the relief station at the Tacloban airport told stories of the human cost.
Photos: Super Typhoon Haiyan
Water levels reached the second story
Children torn from arms
Marvin Isanan said three of his daughters — ages 8, 13 and 15 — were swept from his arms by the storm surge. He and his wife, Loretta Isanan, had found the bodies of the two younger children.
“Only the eldest one is missing,” Marvin Isanan said through tears. “I hope she’s alive.”
A woman at the airport said she escaped the water by climbing onto her roof. From there, she watched bodies float by.
Categories: Asia, Philippines
In natural disasters such as this one it is important that those who want to help have stocks of emergency supplies. Those agencies that ‘wait for the disaster to happen’ and then start to ‘ask for donations’ are really – let me find a polite word – not efficient. Some UN agencies and NGOs for instance have a ‘relief hub’ in Dubai with many of the needed items in stock. These are the ones who can just ‘load up’ and are ‘ready to go’.