Philippines' typhoon Haiyan has been one of the most devastating storms in the country's history. CNN reports that Tacloban city Mayor Alfred Romualdez suggested it is "entirely possible" that 10,000 people may have died in the storm in Leyte province. Provincial police official, Elmer Soria, echoed the statement, stating that up to 10,000 people may have died in the storm. The magnitude of the devastation is unprecedented: entire villages have been flattened by the force of the storm and the surges it brought. President Benigno S. Aquino III declared a "state of calamity."
The Philippines has been truly decimated by this typhoon. According to the New York Times, even structures like gymnasiums and schools that had been designated as evacuation centers could not withstand the force of the typhoon. Information is scarce as villages and towns have been completely cut off from communication. "There is no power, no water, nothing," Secretary of Defense Voltaire Gazmin said. "People are desperate. They're looting." The looting has added another layer of chaos to a country in a desperate state.
The Philippines has born the brunt of Mother Nature already this year: just four weeks ago an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck the archipelago to disasterous results. International and local aid relief has been hampered by the utter devastation: Tacloban aiprort is entirely flooded. The US embassy in Manila made $100,000 available for the country's aid, while Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel deployed ships and aircraft to deliver emergency supplies and food to the hard-hit country.
"The last time I saw something on this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami," Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, the head of the United Nations team, said in a statement. "This is destruction on a massive scale. There are cars thrown like tumbleweed."
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