Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines - Nening got ahold of her dad, her family is alive

estimates at least 1,200 dead in Tacloban

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/09/strongest-typhoon-year-hits-philippines/

here are some photos, Bing and I weren't able to get past the first twenty. We know some of these places.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/photos-typhoon-haiyan-western-pacific-20131107

wow. There is always something to worry about. I hope the recovery goes well.

I think prayers are in order here. We all hope your family members are all OK Jay.

Ancona, all our family members are fine. Our land is in Pagadian City, in the province of Zamboanga del Sur, on the southernmost island of Mindanao. Half of Bings family is there and the other half is in the (shit) hole of Cavite outside of Manila. Both were spared the ferocity of the storm, which I understand was the same as an F3 tornado, only for hours. Some of Bings family is from the areas destroyed, but they are no longer living there, but I have visited many of those places. Some of the filipina army here in Burnet (there are 189 per census ten years ago) were directly hit/affected. All family members are accounted for. But to think of the horror ahead is mind boggling to me. to go from a subsistence existence to absolutely nothing; the deaths have only begun. Life is already hard there, without living in the intertropical convergence zone. I am not the crying type, but I actually teared up and couldn't look at anymore pictures (neither could Bing). Maybe its because I have a connection....starving kids in Darfur don't particularly bother me...

A tragic reminder that we're all just renters on this planet and the landlord is bipolar. Sorry for your pain.

edit: This is turning out to be a humanitarian catastrophe of truly epic proportions. The devastation and human loss is almost incomprehensible based on what I am reading today. The rest of the world needs to send everything they can, as fast as they can to help the survivors.

well, I guess they have the death toll in Tacloban alone at 10,000 now. Aubuy, you are so correct. I suppose no one here speaks Tagalog, but she is talking about the storm tearing her children out of her hands. The reporter says the water was three stories deep.

Aubuy said:

A tragic reminder that we're all just renters on this planet and the landlord is bipolar. Sorry for your pain.

edit: This is turning out to be a humanitarian catastrophe of truly epic proportions. The devastation and human loss is almost incomprehensible based on what I am reading today. The rest of the world needs to send everything they can, as fast as they can to help the survivors.

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I might add don't give money to the Red Cross. They are a scam and have yet to distribute the money they have collected for Katrina or Sandy. DYODD (unlike what I did on the other thread). filipinas/filipinos are endemic, you probably know some. Ask someone WHO YOU TRUST who you can send money to. just my $.02

edited to add: this is NOT a plea for anyone on this board to send help/money. I'm just saying if you decide to, to be careful.

Sounds like the destruction for this typhoon is on par with what people were fearing, but didn't happen with Phailin in India.

PMBug said:

Sounds like the destruction for this typhoon is on par with what people were fearing, but didn't happen with Phailin in India.

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funny, I was thinking the same thing. 800,000 evacuated, I'm assuming the deaths were folks who refused to evacuate.

"Balikbayan" means return, filipinas send a 28inch or so square box for 100. to the Philipinnes, it takes about three weeks to get there but it doesn't matter how much it weighs. The local Balikbayan box lady is shipping boxes free as long as they are addressed to Lions club in Leyte. (for distribution). This is a great thing.

Aftermath of a typhoon

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-a-state-of-calamity-as-anarchy-descends.html

Four days since the typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and entire areas have descended into anarchy.

“People are increasingly cross. In disasters like this, you’ve got a three day window to try and get aid to people. If they haven’t received something by day four, then they’re angry.”

“It is terrifying here,” a frightened resident told an AFP journalist. “There are armed thieves going about. If they know that you have food stored away, they will force their way into your house and rob you at gunpoint.”

"Pistol-wielding men are reported to be after rice rather than money."

Bings father was the assayer of the local gold mine when he was alive. He had a home invasion and was knocked out and robbed at gunpoint. One sister and BIL run an illegal sawmill and bus line; the moros killed the sawmill operator and shot Dudung in the arm (he wanted me to bring him a kevlar vest next trip). When Bing was talking to her mom yesterday, apparently a sawmill employee stole Dudungs paid for motorcycle and a bunch of money, then used the stolen bike for collateral for a loan. The businessman repoed the stolen bike, not knowing it was stolen, and now it awaits repatriation at the police station when Duding pays the 2000 peso lot fee. Sounds about like here....

Sobering article on the subject:
http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/11/the-philippines-the-stuff-has-indeed-hit-the-fan-by-gvr.html

benjamen said:

Sobering article on the subject:
http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/11/the-philippines-the-stuff-has-indeed-hit-the-fan-by-gvr.html

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thank you for posting that. I didn't know his wife was pinay.

jay,

I hope everything will be OK for your relatives and friends. We do our part in humanitarian aid,both at my company, and my kid's school are collecting for the victims.

Yet one cannot help but think, how it is, that we (humans) ALWAYS seem to elbow every possible niche in the environment, up & beyond it's carrying capacity, without leaving any safety margins, so when something bad happens - things are turning even worse in due course..

bushi said:

jay,

I hope everything will be OK for your relatives and friends. We do our part in humanitarian aid,both at my company, and my kid's school are collecting for the victims.

Yet one cannot help but think, how it is, that we (humans) ALWAYS seem to elbow every possible niche in the environment, up & beyond it's carrying capacity, without leaving any safety margins, so when something bad happens - things are turning even worse in due course..

Click to expand...

Bushi, everyone in my family is fine (I have land there, but 200 kilometers south of the destruction.) Nanay said there was just wind and rain. One family here in Burnet has family in Tacloban; their family is doing VERY poorly, no food or water.

My mud-logging friend here (he's a geologist) says it sucks to be born on a fault line in the inter-tropical convergence zone. Constant earthquakes, volcanoes and typhoons....