Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines destruction 'absolute bedlam'
“An enormous four-metre storm surge swept into the coast, crushed all of these buildings”, reports Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
The head of the Red Cross in the Philippines has described the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan as "absolute bedlam".
The typhoon flattened homes, schools and an airport.
It has since made landfall in northern Vietnam, close to the China border, as a weaker Category One tropical storm.
Supplies
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Senen Mangalile Philippines Consul General to the UK"The world has not seen a storm like this before”
Four million people have been
affected in the Philippines, and many are now struggling to survive
without food, shelter or clean drinking water.
"There's an awful lot of casualties, a lot of people dead all over the place, a lot of destruction," Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, told the BBC.
"It's absolute bedlam right now, but hopefully it will turn out better as more and more supplies get into the area."
He said roads had now been cleared to allow relief workers to get to the hardest hit areas, but that they expected to find many more casualties.
"It's only now that they were able to get in and we're beginning just to bring in the necessary food items... as well as water and other things that they need."
Jenny Dela Cruz lost 11 members of her family including her daughter
But officials have warned that the number of dead will rise significantly.
Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall - swept through six central Philippine islands on Friday.
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Deadly typhoons
- Sept 1937 Hong Kong typhoon - 11,000 dead
- Sept 1959 Typhoon Vera - deadliest to hit Japan, killing 5,238 people
- Aug 1975 Typhoon Nina - about 229,000 die in China after collapse of Banqiao dam
- Nov 1991 Typhoon Thelma - deadliest in the Philippines to date, killing 5-8,000
It brought sustained winds of
235km/h (147mph), with gusts of 275 km/h (170 mph), with waves as high
as 15m (45ft), bringing up to 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain in places.
American military aircraft and ships are being deployed to provide help. US President Barack Obama has issued a message saying he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life and extensive damage".
Other countries have also pledged millions of dollars in assistance.
Kristalina Georgieva, the EU Humanitarian Aid commissioner, said relief efforts would be guided by three priorities.
"The first one is to get access to remote areas as quickly as possible, and the access issue is both transportation and also restoring telecommunications," she said
"The second, of course, is to get the immediate humanitarian assistance for people affected by this kind of disaster. And the next one would be shelter."
Survivors queue up to receive relief goods at Tacloban airport
An aerial photo shows the devastation in Leyte
Four million people have been affected in the Philippines
Officials said looting was widespread and order was proving difficult to enforce.
In some areas, the dead are being buried in mass graves.
Typhoon Haiyan has now made landfall in Vietnam, near the tourist destination of Ha Long Bay, with sustained winds of up to 140 km/h (85mph).
Some 600,000 people were evacuated in northern provinces of the country.
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