PHILIPPINES: The heavily-damaged Tacloban city airport remains the centre for survivors who want to leave their city flattened by super typhoon Haiyan

Record ID: 564759

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: The heavily-damaged Tacloban city airport remains the centre for survivors who want to leave their city flattened by super typhoon Haiyan
  • Date: 17th November 2013
  • Summary: TACLOBAN, PHILIPPINES (NOVEMBER 17, 2013) (REUTERS) PHILIPPINES AIR FORCE (PAF) AIRCRAFT WITH CROWDS OF PEOPLE NEARBY SOLDIER WALKING PAST CROWD OF PEOPLE JUSTIN CABIDOG AND HIS FRIENDS ASKIN FOR FOOD AID JUSTIN AND HIS FRIENDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUSTIN CABIDOG, TACLOBAN RESIDENT SAYING: "We have been here since yesterday early morning, we have nothing to eat and we're struggling and we don't have any energy." LITTLE GIRL WITH A DRINK AND AN ELDERLY WOMAN PHILIPPINE AIR FORCE PERSONNEL WITH A FOOD TROLLEY GOING ALONG THE QUEUE OF PEOPLE VARIOUS OF FOOD AID COMMANDER OF PHILIPPINE AIR FORCE (PAF) AIR OPERATIONS IN LEYTE PROVINCE, MAJOR GENERAL ROMEO POQUIZ HANDING OUT FOOD AIR FORCE PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PICTURES OF MAJOR GENERAL POQUIZ HANDING OUT AID BABY IN ITS MOTHERS ARMS (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMMANDER OF PHILIPPINE AIR FORCE (PAF) AIR OPERATIONS IN LEYTE PROVINCE, MAJOR GENERAL ROMEO POQUIZ SAYING: "This isn't public relations, this is humanitarian assistance for people who have suffered so much. We need to give them something to eat because many of these people spirits and the kids have been having no food for the past few days." MILITARY PERSONNEL AND PEOPLE IN THE QUEUE PUSHING WHILE OTHERS ARE PREPARED TO BOARD AN AIRCRAFT (SOUNDBITE) (English) EM BRITO, TACLOBAN RESIDENT SAYING: "Well we have to bear the thirst and we're very hungry but we really have to take advantage of the free transport since this is the fastest way going back to Manila and this is the, what do you call it, less expensive." TWO ELDERLY WOMEN WAITING MORE PEOPLE WAITING PEOPLE GETTING ON A PLANE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BOARDING A MILITARY TRANSPORT PLANE PLANE TAKING OFF
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA69FT05GDHDMS6PEZOB3PJH78E
  • Story Text: Hundreds of typhoon survivors waited on Sunday (November 17) at the heavily-damaged Tacloban city airport for a flight out.
    Among those in the queue was sixteen-year-old student Justin Cabidog who had been waiting overnight, sometimes under torrential downpour.

    "We have been here since yesterday early morning, we have nothing to eat and we're struggling and we don't have any energy," Cabidog said.
    The situation at the airport has improved since the immediate aftermath of the disaster when tens of thousands of Tacloban residents scrambled to get on military flights out.
    International planes land in Tacloban to unload tonnes of good.
    Aid workers and medical teams from all over the world have been arriving in the coastal city of 220,000 that is now turned into a wasteland of corpses.
    And local airlines have begun limited domestic flights.
    On Sunday (November 17), members of the Philippine Air Force, which have been flying the C-130 planes used to transport evacuees, handed out food and water to those waiting.

    "This isn't public relations, this is humanitarian assistance for people who have suffered so much. We need to give them something to eat because many of these people spirits and the kids have been having no food for the past few days," said Major General Romeo Poquiz.
    One survivor, Em Brito, said she didn't mind spending a night on the tarmac.

    "Well we have to bear the thirst and we're very hungry but we really have to take advantage of the free transport since this is the fastest way going back to Manila and this is the, what do you call it, less expensive," she said, referring to the commercial flights that now operate hourly out of the airport.
    At least least 3,681 people have been killed after the typhoon hit on November 8.
    A massive relief effort is finally kicking into gear, nine days after one of the most powerful typhoons on record wreaked havoc across the impoverished area in the central Philippines with monster winds and a deadly storm surge of sea water.
    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.
    Nearly half a million houses were damaged by the storm, half of them destroyed, according to the United Nations.
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