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10 November 2013 Last updated at 09:12 ET  BBC
Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines battles to bring storm aid

 
 

Jenny Dela Cruz has lost 11 members of her family including her young daughter, reports Jon Donnison
The authorities in the Philippines are struggling to bring relief to some of the areas worst affected by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the country.

Up to 10,000 are said to have died in Tacloban city and hundreds elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands are displaced.

The typhoon flattened homes, schools and an airport in Tacloban.

Relief workers are yet to reach some towns and villages cut off since the storm.

In many areas there is no clean water, no electricity and very little food.

Thousands of troops have been deployed to the disaster zones and military cargo planes are flying in supplies. However, rescuers are hampered by debris and damaged roads.

Pope Francis pleaded for aid for the victims in the mostly Catholic country, saying: "Sadly, there are many, many victims and the damage is huge. Let's try to provide concrete help."
 

Vietnam is now preparing for the typhoon, with more than 600,000 people evacuated in northern provinces.

At least four people were reported killed there, apparently while trying to escape the storm.

The BBC Weather Centre says the typhoon is expected to make landfall south of Hanoi on Monday morning local time (21:00 GMT Sunday to 03: 00 GMT Monday), although it will have decreased markedly in strength.
'Not enough manpower'

The relief efforts in the Philippines are being focused on the eastern province of Leyte and its capital Tacloban.

But officials in the city said they were struggling to distribute aid, looting was widespread and order was proving difficult to enforce.
 

Footage has emerged of people caught in floodwaters in Tacloban on Friday

In some areas, the dead are being buried in mass graves.

Houses have been flattened by the massive storm surge that accompanied Typhoon Haiyan.

"There is looting in the malls and large supermarkets. They are taking everything, even appliances like TV sets. These will be traded later on for food," said Tacloban city administrator Tecson John Lim.

"We don't have enough manpower. We have 2,000 employees but only about 100 are reporting for work. Everyone is attending to their families."

President Benigno Aquino, who has visited Tacloban, pledged to send 300 police and soldiers to "bring back peace and order".

But local residents fear for their safety.
 An aerial shot shows the devastation in Tacloban
 The storm was so powerful that it washed large ships ashore in the city
 Philippine President Benigno Aquino surveyed the damage at Tacloban airport
 People have been struggling to find food and looting has been reported
 The nearby town of Palo was also devastated

"Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families," high school teacher Andrew Pomeda told AFP news agency.

"People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk... I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger."

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports that the scene in Tacloban is one of utter devastation.

Our correspondent says hundreds of people are at the airport, itself badly damaged, trying to get on a flight out of the city.

Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said the scale of the relief operation that was now required was overwhelming, with some places described as a wasteland of mud and debris.

Tacloban city

• First Philippines city to be liberated from the Japanese in World War II
• US Gen Douglas MacArthur came ashore here in October 1944
• Capital of liberated Philippines until February 1945
• Childhood home of former First Lady Imelda Marcos, who was crowned the Rose of Tacloban at the age of 18

"From a helicopter, you can see the extent of devastation. From the shore and moving a kilometre inland, there are no structures standing. It was like a tsunami," he told Reuters news agency.

A UN official who arrived in Tacloban on Saturday, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, said he was told there had been a 3m (10ft) water surge through the city, in places up to 10m.

Meanwhile Leo Dacaynos, an official in Eastern Samar province, told local radio 300 people had been found dead in a single town, Basey, with another 2,000 missing and many injured.

Communication is still limited in many areas.

Officials have still not made contact with Guiuan, a town of 40,000 people near where the typhoon made landfall.

The town of Baco, in Oriental Mindoro province, to the north-west, is said to be 80% under water.

The latest report from the Philippines' Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council confirmed 229 deaths as of 11:00 GMT on Sunday. It said almost 630,000 people had been reported displaced.

The Philippines has been offered aid from overseas:

• US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US was delivering helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and search and rescue equipment on request
• The European Commission released 3m euros ($4m; £2.5m) in emergency funds and is sending a team of humanitarian experts
• The UK Rapid Response Facility is to provide £5m ($8m) in aid and a £600,000 shipment of emergency equipment. A team of four experts is already in the disaster zone
• The UN is to provide tents, food and relief supplies

Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall - swept through six central Philippine islands on Friday.

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.

The speeds will decrease greatly before the typhoon hits Vietnam.

Sustained wind speeds are currently forecast to be in the region of 75-85mph (120-140 km/h), with gusts to 120 mph.

Meanwhile, China's Xinhua news agency reported that eight people had died after being swept out to sea in northern Taiwan by waves attributed to Typhoon Haiyan.

Another six people on board a cargo vessel were missing off the southern Chinese island of Hainan, Xinhua said, as Beijing issued a typhoon alert for Hainan, the nearby province of Guangdong and the Guangxi autonomous region.