adminTACLOBAN — Scores of decaying bodies were laid in mass graves yesterday as overwhelmed Philippines authorities grappled with disposal of the dead, while the living begged for help after the typhoon disaster. The expected arrival later in the day of the USS George Washington, a huge aircraft carrier with 5 000 sailors aboard, offered some hope for the hungry and thirsty left to roam the ruined city of Tacloban.
But almost a week after Typhoon Haiyan swept through the country’s central islands, crushing settlements and laying waste to an already poor area, the stench of putrefying flesh hung heavy in the air.
“I do feel that we have let people down,” conceded United Nations humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos, who visited Tacloban on Wednesday.
“Those who have been able to leave have done so. Many more are trying. People are extremely desperate for help. We need to get assistance to them now. They are already saying it has taken too long to arrive. Ensuring a faster delivery is our… immediate priority,” she told reporters in Manila.
By mid-morning in Tacloban on Leyte island, some of the 200 corpses that had been lined up side-by-side at a local government building had been placed at the bottom of a huge pit expected to be several layers deep by the time it is covered over with earth.
“There are still so many cadavers in so many areas. It’s scary,” said Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez, adding that retrieval teams were struggling to cope. There would be a request from one community to collect five or 10 bodies and when we get there, there are 40,”
Romualdez told AFP, saying that aid agencies’ response to the increasingly desperate crisis had been too slow.
Six days after Super Typhoon Haiyan unleashed its fury, President Barack Obama urged Americans to dig deep for donations to their former Asian colony. US officials said relief channels were slowly opening up as the aircraft carrier leads a small armada of warships steaming towards the Philippines. — AFP.
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