Rescue workers have warned of difficulties in reaching survivors after Typhoon Haiyan struck the eastern Philippine coast, as the official death toll neared 1,800.
The day after the typhoon struck, a team of 15 doctors and logistics experts was ready to fly to the worst-hit city to help. A team from Medecins Sans Frontieres, complete with medical supplies, arrived on Cebu Island on Saturday looking for a flight to Tacloban, but had not yet left.
Meanwhile, thousands of people hoping for rescue camped at Tacloban Airport and ran on to the tarmac when planes came in, surging past a broken iron fence and a few soldiers and police trying to control them. Only a few hundred made it aboard.
“We need help. Nothing is happening,” said Aristone Balute, an 81-year-old. “We haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon.”
“There is a huge amount that we need to do. We have not been able to get into the remote communities,” UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in Manila. “Even in Tacloban, because of the debris and the difficulties with logistics and so on, we have not been able to get in the level of supply that we would want to.”
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said relief goods were getting into the city, and the supply should increase in coming days now that the airport and a bridge to the island were open. Beside the ruined airport tower, at a small makeshift clinic with shattered windows, army and air force medics said they had treated around 1,000 people for cuts, bruises, lacerations and deep wounds.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Air Force Capt. Antonio Tamayo. “We need more medicine. We cannot give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none.”
The official death toll from the disaster rose to 1,774 yesterday, though authorities estimate 10,000 dead is accurate and might be low. More than 9 million people have been affected across the country, many of them made homeless.
The United Nations said it had released 25million US dollars (£15.8m) in emergency funds to pay for emergency shelter materials and household items, and for assistance with the provision of emergency health services, safe water supplies and sanitation facilities.