PHILIPPINES: Supplies trickle into Tacloban as typhoon survivors attempt to rebuild lives

Record ID: 564757

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: Supplies trickle into Tacloban as typhoon survivors attempt to rebuild lives
  • Date: 16th November 2013
  • Summary: TACLOBAN CITY, PHILPPINES (NOVEMBER 16, 2013) (REUTERS) VEHICLES DRIVING ON STREET SIGN READING IN ENGLISH: "THE EYES OF THE WORLD IS ON US. RELAX... BUT DON'T QUIT!" OVERTURNED TRUCK BY ROADSIDE PEOPLE PREPARING PORK MAN SCRUBBING DEAD PIG MAN SHARPENING KNIFE, ARRANGING PORK ON TABLE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING OUTSIDE PETROL STATION THAT HAS JUST STARTED OPERATION 53-YEAR-OLD OPTOMETRIST AMMY BUCTON STANDING EMPTY BOTTLES FOR FUEL IN BUCTON'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) 53-YEAR-OLD OPTOMETRIST AMMY BUCTON SAYING: "I'm very happy that they are selling petrol now. Queuing here is just something we have to deal with do to get it." VARIOUS OF 78-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR GERTRUDES RADAN BRUSHING TEETH AT DOOR OF VAN VARIOUS OF PEOPLE FORAGING WOOD FROM RUBBLE OF COLLAPSED BUILDINGS RADAN AND HER FAMILY SEATED INSIDE VAN RADAN'S GRANDDAUGHTER LOOKING ON (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) 78-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR GERTRUDES RADAN SAYING: "My son is trying to rebuild the house back in Calipayan because it was totally destroyed. He's rebuilding it now so that we can move back" VARIOUS OF LINE OF BODIES IN BAGS ON ROADSIDE RUBBLE OF DESTROYED HOUSES
  • Embargoed: 1st December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Disasters,Environment,People
  • Reuters ID: LVACK6ZRE0E9Z55ANZMPN3FKFLEE
  • Story Text: As supplies trickled into Tacloban early on Saturday (November 16), eight days after Super Typhoon Haiyan killed thousands, a sense of hope was returning.
    With logistics improving, more aid is now reaching those hit by the worst storm in recorded history.
    An optimistic hand-painted sign along a main road into the city reads: "The eyes of the world is on us. Relax... but don't quit!"
    A man chopped and prepared pork on a busy roadside and hundreds queued up outside a petrol station, selling petrol for the first time since the typhoon knocked out power on November 8.
    Fifty-three-year-old optometrist Ammy Bucton walked from the city's outskirts, starting his journey at 4am local time (2000gmt Friday Nov.15), to wait until a night time curfew was lifted in order to join the queue for petrol.
    Still queuing after over four hours with his empty bottles, he was grateful for the opportunity to buy a little fuel.
    "I'm very happy that they are selling petrol now. Queuing here is just something we have to deal with do to get it," said Bucton.
    But survivors like 78-year-old Gertrudes Radan face a long struggle to rebuild shattered lives.
    Radan has been living with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a small van they found on the roadside after her house was knocked flat.
    "My son is trying to rebuild the house back in Calipayan because it was totally destroyed. He's rebuilding it now so that we can move back," she said.
    Groups of newly-discovered bodies lay along that roadside on Saturday.
    The United Nations, citing government figures, put the latest death toll at 4,460 - almost double the last official number given.
    More than 920,000 people have been displaced, the UN said, but many areas are yet to receive aid.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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