After being the world lead for the better part of the week it has been relegated to page A10 today:
"Philippine aid on hold as bodies retrieved; Many in region hungry, homeless" by Austin Ramzy | New York Times, November 16, 2013
TACLOBAN, Philippines — On a shoreline that was once an entertainment destination in this city, a group of scavengers sorted through piles of debris for anything useful — a rusted drum that might have gasoline, lumber to rebuild their homes, an undamaged fishing net.
Alongside, a team of volunteers from the Philippine Red Cross searched for bodies, a task that has consumed much of aid workers’ time, even as thousands of residents remain hungry and homeless here. They had arrived Thursday after a five-day voyage on a Philippine navy ship from Cavite City that was rerouted to Cebu out of fears that another storm would follow the devastating Typhoon Haiyan.
The group had originally planned to arrive Sunday on a C-130 from Manila, but had to give way to officials who were flying to Tacloban to survey the damage, according to three of the volunteers.
“So what was supposed to be a rescue operation became a retrieval operation,” said Florabel Fumar, one of the volunteers.
The mayor of Tacloban City, Alfred S. Romualdez, said Friday that the city had 801 confirmed dead. In a sign of the inability of officials to get a handle on basic information about the disaster one week after the typhoon hit here, Romualdez apologized for a figure of 2,000 dead that was released Thursday, which he said was “speculation for the entire region.”
The United Nations has also had trouble reporting on the death toll, with its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting 3,600 deaths Friday, a day after saying there had been 4,460. John Ging, the office’s operations director, apologized Friday for the discrepancy, saying the higher number was an estimate and not confirmed deaths.
In Tacloban, the dead are being taken to a mass grave in a public cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Romualdez said just 10 percent to 15 percent of the dead had been identified.
He said the delivery of the first cycle of food packets, which is supposed to be 6 pounds of rice and some canned goods for each family, was expected to be completed Friday.
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Related:
Picking Up the Pieces in the Philippines
Eight Pages and Out
Typhoon aid is gridlocked
Six Pages Are Sufficient
I read a bit more than that today.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Hunt for missing in Philippines grinds on; Task is horrific daily activity for some survivors" by Kristen Gelineau | Associated Press, November 17, 2013
TACLOBAN, Philippines —A horrific daily activity....
According to the latest figures by the Philippines’ main disaster agency, 3,633 people died....
After the initial days of chaos, when no aid reached the more than 600,000 people rendered homeless, an international aid effort was gathering steam.
“We’re starting to see the turning of the corner,” said John Ging, a top UN humanitarian official in New York....
Ah, the steaming stink of reduced coverage coming.
US Navy helicopters flew sorties from the aircraft carrier USS George Washington off the coast, dropping water and food to isolated communities. The US military said it will send about 1,000 more troops along with additional ships and aircraft to join the aid effort.
Hmmmm.
The US military has moved 190 tons of supplies and flown nearly 200 sorties.
I know they are only helping, but that is adding to the greenhouse gas mess that caused the typhoon (or so my agenda-pu$hing media insists).
The focus of the aid effort is on providing life-saving aid for those who survived, while the search for missing people is lower in the government’s priorities....
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Also see:
Boston-area Filipinos pray for typhoon victims
Falling prices pose hurdle for effort to limit fossil fuels
Related: Gas Prices Going Down
Now at $3.35.
