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China ready to send rescue teams to PHL

 News
Nov 172013
 
China ready to send rescue teams to PHL

BEIJING — China said Sunday it is ready to send rescue and medical teams to the Philippines, in a belated offer coming more than a week after a devastating typhoon struck the island nation. The proposal made in a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s website follows an extremely modest pledge of less than $2 million in disaster assistance made last week. The small offering has been attributed to spite over a festering dispute with Manila over South China Sea islands claimed by both sides. China, which has the world’s second largest economy, claims the entire sea and its island groups and has been enraged by Manila’s robust defense of what it says has long been Philippine territory. Views expressed on the Chinese Internet have argued strongly against aiding the Philippines, despite the potential damage to China’s hopes of being regarded as a responsible regional and possibly global leader. In the statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted as saying Saturday that China was monitoring conditions in the Philippines and the emergency teams would depart for the hardest hit areas “should conditions permit.” There was no immediate indication whether the aid teams were preparing to depart or whether the Philippine government had accepted the Chinese offer. — AP

PHL Embassy: 22k people involved in Yolanda relief work

 General
Nov 172013
 
PHL Embassy: 22k people involved in Yolanda relief work

Miss Philippines Earth 2013 Angelee delos Reyes with Yolanda survivors. Miss Philippines Earth 2013, Angelee delos Reyes, plays with children of refugees from Tacloban at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Friday. More people continue to leave Tacloban to escape the chaos caused by ‘Yolanda.’ Alecs Ongcal Nearly 23,000 people from the Philippines and around the world are involved in ongoing disaster relief efforts for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). The Philippine embassy in Washington said this Sunday, a week after Yolanda ravaged the Visayas and Southern Luzon. Citing data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, it also noted 23 foreign medical teams are now in place to assist residents of yolanda -affected areas. Also, it said medical teams from the US, Japan, Australia, France, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Korea are assisting affected communities in Leyte. Meanwhile, doctors and other volunteers from Spain, Israel, Japan, Canada and Norway are helping affected communities in Cebu. The embassy added doctors and other volunteers from Switzerland and Canada are assisting in typhoon-devastated areas in Panay Island. — LBG, GMA News

200 evacuees from Yolanda-ravaged Tacloban arrive in NCR

 News
Nov 142013
 
200 evacuees from Yolanda-ravaged Tacloban arrive in NCR

Yolanda survivors arrive in Manila. A young survivor who was evacuated from a disaster zone in Tacloban City is carried into an Army truck with her family after they arrived via a military plane at Villamor Air Base in Manila on Tuesday, November 12. Rescue workers are still trying to reach towns and villages in the central Philippines that were cut off by super typhoon Yolanda as relief efforts intensified with the help of US military. Reuters/Cheryl Ravelo At least 200 residents of Tacloban City, which was ravaged last week by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), arrived in Metro Manila Thursday evening aboard a C-130 plane. The Tacloban residents included the elderly and children who were traumatized by the devastation caused by Yolanda, radio dzBB reported early Friday. Representatives of some government agencies were on hand at Villamor Air Base to assist them at the Villamor Air Base, the report said. Some of the Tacloban residents were quoted in the report as saying their ordeal lasted two to three days as they tried to make sense of what happened to them. An earlier dzBB report said some of the Tacloban residents admitted they do not have a place to stay while in Metro Manila. They are to be temporarily sheltered at the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s facility at Jose Fabella Hospital in Manila, the dzBB report said. Tacloban City was among the areas hit hardest by Yolanda, which ravaged parts of Visayas and Southern Luzon last week. As of Read More …

US carrier starts typhoon relief ops as Aquino comes under fire

 News
Nov 142013
 
US carrier starts typhoon relief ops as Aquino comes under fire

TACLOBAN – A U.S. aircraft carrier “strike group” started unloading food and water to the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines on Thursday, as President Benigno Aquino faced mounting pressure to speed up the distribution of supplies. While relief efforts picked up, local authorities began burying the dead – an important, if grim, milestone for a city shredded by one of the world’s most powerful typhoons and the tsunami-like wall of seawater believed to have killed thousands. “There are still bodies on the road,” said Alfred Romualdez, mayor of Tacloban, a city of 220,000 people reduced to rubble in worst-hit Leyte province. “It’s scary. There is a request from a community to come and collect bodies. They say it’s five or 10. When we get there, it’s 40.” Many petrol station owners whose businesses were spared have refused to reopen, leaving little fuel for trucks needed to move supplies and medical teams around the devastated areas nearly a week after Typhoon Haiyan struck. “The choice is to use the same truck either to distribute food or collect bodies,” Romualdez added. The nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier and accompanying ships arrived off wind-swept eastern Samar province, carrying 5,000 crew and more than 80 aircraft, after what strike force commander Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery called a “high-speed transit” from Hong Kong. It is moored near where U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s force of 174,000 men landed on October 20, 1944, in one of the biggest allied victories of World War Two. “Operation Damayan” started with Read More …

UK deploys helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious to help in Yolanda relief 

 News
Nov 142013
 
UK deploys helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious to help in Yolanda relief 

COLOMBO – Britain will send the helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious to the Philippines to help with relief efforts after super typhoon Haiyan, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday. “I can announce Britain is sending the carrier HMS Illustrious to help with #TyphoonHaiyan,” Cameron, who is heading to a Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, said on his official Twitter account. Cameron said the total amount of British government aid for victims of the typhoon, which is believed to have killed thousands after it struck last Friday, was now in excess of 20 million pounds (around P1.4 billion). Illustrious is currently on exercise in the Gulf and is expected to reach the Philippines by November 25, the British government said. It will replace the British destroyer HMS Daring, which joined the aid effort earlier this week. The carrier has seven helicopters–three Lynx, three Sea Kings and one Merlin–which will be used to distribute food and water. The ship, with a crew of 900, also has equipment for converting sea water to fresh water. Cameron said Britain was also chartering a Russian Antonov aircraft to transport 100 tons of equipment for rubble clearance and for the handling of relief supplies at airfields. Britain has already sent a Royal Air Force C-17 transport aircraft to help the aid effort. “What happened in the Philippines is an absolute tragedy. You can see the devastation, the suffering, and it’s quite clear that we are going to need long-term help for those people,” Cameron said. Illustrious is Read More …

Walang Pasok: Zoraida prompts Davao City, Bacolod City, Bohol class suspensions

 News
Nov 112013
 
Walang Pasok: Zoraida prompts Davao City, Bacolod City, Bohol class suspensions

(Updated 9:12 a.m.) Classes were suspended in the entire Bohol province, Bacolod City in Negros Occidental, and Davao City Tuesday due to the threat of bad weather conditions from Tropical Depression Zoraida. In Bohol, Governor Edgar Chatto ordered the suspension for classes from preschool to high school in private and public schools Tuesday morning, the provincial government said. “Gov. Chatto suspends classes today in Bohol pre-school/elementary/high school both private and public schools due to TD Zoraida,” it said on its Twitter account  As of 5 a.m. Tuesday, Bohol was among the areas under Storm Signal No. 1 due to Zoraida. On Monday, Jagna town in Bohol suspended classes for Tuesday and Wednesday in anticipation of bad weather from Zoraida. PAGASA earlier said Zoraida may make landfall over the Davao region Tuesday morning. In Davao City, classes were suspended Tuesday due to the threat of ill weather from Tropical Depression Zoraida, the city government said. In an advisory, the Davao City government said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the suspension of classes at all levels, even if Davao City was not under a storm signal. “PAGASA advisories have stated Davao City will be experiencing rains with gusty winds,” Davao City said in an advisory.  Meanwhile, state-run Philippine Information Agency said Bacolod City suspended classes in the preschool and elementary levels. Negros Occidental, where Bacolod is located, is also under Signal No. 1 as of 5 a.m. At least 29 areas in the Visayas and Mindanao were placed under Storm Signal No. 1 Read More …

US deploys aircraft carrier to PHL for relief ops in aftermath of Yolanda

 News
Nov 112013
 
US deploys aircraft carrier to PHL for relief ops in aftermath of Yolanda

The United States is sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Philippines to support disaster relief efforts in the wake of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), a US defense official told Reuters. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, could not immediately provide further details. The aircraft carrier has been on a port visit to Hong Kong. Based in Yokosuka, Japan, the nuclear-powered Washington is the most visible sign of an increased U.S. naval presence across Asia that has been steadily growing for the last five years – a key element in the controversial U.S. “pivot”. The Washington strike group – that often includes destroyers, cruisers and a fast-attack submarine backed by up to 90 aircraft – protects the only one of 10 carriers deployed permanently outside the continental United States. U.S. military forces arrived in the Philippines on Monday to bolster relief efforts, officials said, with military cargo planes transporting food, medical supplies and water for victims. Other U.S. aircraft were positioning to assist the Philippines, with U.S. forces operating out of Villamor Air Base in Manila and in Tacloban.   Deployment of the US George Washington was revealed as rescue workers were trying to reach towns and villages in the Visayas on Tuesday that were cut off by Yolanda in an operation that could reveal the full extent of the loss of life and devastation from the disaster. Officials in Tacloban City, which bore the brunt of one of the strongest storms ever recorded when it slammed Read More …

US marines deploy in Leyte for typhoon relief and rescue

 News
Nov 112013
 
US marines deploy in Leyte for typhoon relief and rescue

US Marines sent to PHL to help ‘Yolanda’ victims. US Marines board a KC-130J Hercules aircraft on Sunday, November 10, at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, Japan, moments before departing for a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission to the Philippines. Super typhoon Yolanda has impacted more than 4.2 million people across 36 provinces in the Philippines, according to the NDRRMC. AFP/USMC / Lance Cpl. David Hersey TACLOBAN – US marines on Monday joined a frantic effort to rescue famished survivors of a typhoon that may have killed 10,000 people in the Philippines, as the government declared a national emergency and security forces struggled to contain looting. Three days after Super Typhoon Haiyan flattened entire towns across the central Philippines and left countless bodies scattered across wastelands, desperation was building with devastated communities devoid of food, water and medicines. President Benigno Aquino late Monday declared a national state of calamity, which allows the government to impose price controls and quickly release emergency funds. “In the coming days, be assured: help will reach you faster and faster,” he said in a televised address. “My appeal to you all is: remaining calm, praying, cooperating with, and assisting one another are the things that will help us to rise from this calamity.” Relief cannot come soon enough for Joan Lumbre-Wilson, 54, who was among a large crowd of people gathered around one of the few relief centres in the ruined city of Tacloban. “We want an organized, coordinated brigade to collect the Read More …

Mobile signal up in Tacloban, says Globe

 News
Nov 102013
 
Mobile signal up in Tacloban, says Globe

Globe Telecom was able to restore communication to Tacloban, one of the places hardest hit by Typhoon Yolanda, with one cellsite serving the “critical communication requirements of the local government units and agencies involved in disaster response and coordination efforts,” the company said in a statement Sunday. The temporary cellsite was put up near Hotel Alejandro along Paterno Street, the company said. Globe also said that the Air Force, the Navy and other government units are helping transport heavy network equipment to critical sites including Tacloban.  “Around 26 sites from Calbayog, Samar to northern Samar have also been repaired and brought back to operations. Of the total sites affected including those in southern Luzon and Mindanao, 471 sites, or 30 percentof total affected sites have already been restored. In the Visayas region, close to 20 percent of all 2G/3G sites affected have been restored,” the statement added. Meanwhile, Libreng Tawag stations have been set up in three sites in Iloilo: the OWWA Office on the third floor of Robinson Mall, the Western Visayas Cyberlink Inc. HUB Shoppers Avenue, and the Globe Telecom office on JM Basa Street. The company has also set up stations offering free cellphone charging centers in the following areas: Southern Leyte1.IC Abgao,Maasin City2. GT Mambahao Maasin3. FOBN Maasin City4. GT Maria Clara Maasin5. GT Macrohon6. GT Pob. P. Burgos7. IC Tangkaan P. Burgos8. GT Bunga P. Burgos9. GT Bontoc So. Lyte10. IC Sogod So. Lyte11. IC Lilo-an So. Lyte12. GT Nahulid Bohol1. GT Dagohoy2. Innove Talibon3 Read More …

DSWD in dire need of volunteers in Cebu to repack relief goods

 News
Nov 102013
 
DSWD in dire need of volunteers in Cebu to repack relief goods

Typhoon Yolanda relief ops in Pasay. Volunteers are repacking relief goods at the DSWD ware house in Pasay City on Saturday, November 9, for the victims of typhoon Yolanda. DANNY PATA Danny Pata As Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras in a press conference on Sunday announced to gathered media that routes by land into Tacloban City have opened up, he also called on the public, especially those in Cebu to volunteer with the Department of Social Welfare and Development in repacking relief goods for those in Tacloban and other hard hit places. “Cebu has been targeted as a logistics center, so DSWD is appealing for repacking volunteers in Cebu,” Almendras said, noting that the DSWD in Cebu is in dire need of volunteers to help repack goods. “We have to step it up, palakasin pa ang repacking sa Cebu, kasi it is our closest logistics center we have for repacking,” he said. DSWD aims to give families food supplies enough to last at least five days, Almendras added. – Patricia Denise Chiu / KDM, GMA News 

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