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US aid reaches remote areas, many still hungry
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Mobbed by hungry villagers, US military helicopters dropped desperately needed aid into remote areas of the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines yesterday, as survivors of the disaster flocked to ruined churches to pray for their uncertain future.
The Philippines is facing up to an enormous rebuilding task from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 3,974 people and left 1,186 missing, with many isolated communities yet to receive significant aid despite a massive global relief effort.
Philippine authorities and international aid agencies face a mounting humanitarian crisis, with the number of people displaced by the catastrophe estimated at 4 million, up from 900,000 late last week.
President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster and criticized by some for the sometimes chaotic response, visited affected areas yesterday. In Guiuan, a hard-hit coastal town in eastern Samar province, he praised the city mayor for conducting a proper evacuation that had limited deaths to less than 100, saying that was in contrast to other towns.
“In other places, I prefer not to talk about it. As your president, I am not allowed to get angry even if I am already upset. I’ll just suffer through it with an acidic stomach,” said Aquino.
While aid packages have begun to reach more remote areas, much of it carried by helicopters brought by the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, the United Nations said people were still going hungry in some mountainous provinces.
“I remain concerned about the health and well-being of the millions of men, women and children who are still in desperate need,” UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said.
In Cabungaan, a village in the interior of Leyte province’s Tanauan district — where as many as 1,200 died — the arrival of a US Seahawk helicopter yesterday was the first outside help since Haiyan made landfall.
Scores of villagers ran from makeshift shanties to greet the helicopter as it settled in a flattened patch of grass.
For the past week, the village’s 200-plus residents had been living on one meal a day of “dried fish, sometimes coconuts, not enough rice,” said Richel Maballo, 19.
In Tacloban, residents knelt in prayer in the shells of ruined churches.
At one church, Rosario Capidos, 55, sat crying, hugging her nine-year-old grandson.
Capidos had been sheltering at home when Haiyan struck on November 8. As the waters rose, she floated her three grandchildren on a slab of styrofoam through a road flooded with debris to a nearby Chinese temple.
“That’s why I’m crying,” she said. “I thank God I was given a second chance to live.”
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