VIDEO. Philippines : Haiyan, "le typhon le plus puissant jamais connu"./Officials say death toll in Leyte province expected to be as high as 10,000

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La Croix-Rouge philippine parle d'au moins 1 200 morts. 15 000 soldats sont dépêchés vers les zones les plus touchées...

La Croix-Rouge philippine a déclaré, samedi 9 novembre, avoir reçu des informations laissant penser que le super typhon Haiyan avait fait au moins 1 000 morts à Tacloban et 200 autres dans la province de Samar. Le bilan officiel provisoire, communiqué dans la matinée, n'est encore que d'au moins 100 morts. Il ne concerne que Tacloban, une ville de 220 000 habitants sur la trajectoire du typhon. De nombreuses villes sont injoignables pour le moment dans cette région où vivent 4 millions de personnes.

"On peut voir flotter plus de 1.000 corps à Tacloban, selon nos équipes de la Croix-Rouge", a déclaré le secrétaire général de la Croix-Rouge philippine. "A Samar, il y a autour de 200 morts. Les vérifications sont en cours."

Le typhon le plus puissant de l'Histoire ?
Le gouvernement a dépêché, samedi matin, 15 000 soldats vers les zones les plus touchées par Haiyan. Il a notamment envoyé des avions chargés de matériel de secours et de communication, des hélicoptères et des unités d'infanterie par camion et à pied.
Le typhon, doté d'un front de 600 km, a frappé les provinces orientales de Leyte et Samar, avec des vents atteignant des pointes de 315 km/heure, devenant ainsi le typhon le plus violent enregistré cette année sur la planète. C'est aussi l'un des plus forts à avoir atteint les terres depuis des décennies. Il devrait toucher les côtes vietnamiennes dimanche.
Jeff Masters, météorologue américain chez Weather Underground, une entreprise privée de météorologie, a indiqué cette semaine que Haiyan était "le plus puissant cyclone à toucher terre de l'Histoire". Il a été classé en catégorie 5, la plus élevée, avant d'être rétrogradé en catégorie 4. Le typhon le plus violent de 2012, Bopha, avait frappé les Philippines, laissant quelque 2 000 personnes mortes ou disparues sur Mindanao, une île du sud du pays.
 francetvinfo.fr
9/11/13 
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• As super typhoon Haiyan hits Philippines, UN and partners prepare to provide support

8 November 2013 – The United Nations and its partners are supporting the Government of the Philippines in assessing the damage caused by super typhoon Haiyan, which made landfall this morning in Guiuan on Samar Island and is currently making its way across the country.
“We are working closely in support of Government and local authorities to assess the life-saving needs of the people affected by this typhoon,” said Julie Hall, acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines.
The super typhoon, known locally as Yolanda, has ripped roofs off housing, uprooted trees and affected businesses, but the full extent of the damage will not be known until the storm has passed.
According to media reports, it is one of the strongest storms ever recorded, with sustained winds of 295 kilometres per hour (kph), placing it above the 252 kph threshold for a Category 5 hurricane, the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Three people have reportedly died, and seven others have been injured.
Haiyan is expected to travel over eastern, central and western Visayas, Bicol and Southern Tagalog, which have a combined population of 29.4 million people. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) described the typhoon as “violent” but said it is expected to weaken slightly on a trajectory towards Viet Nam.

08 Nov 2013: Philippines, Vietnam – Tropical Cyclone HAIYAN

Click on map to download PDF version (846.38 KB)

The Government has taken preventative steps to save lives by moving people from coastal and low-lying areas known to be prone to flash flooding and landslides. The UN Humanitarian Country Team and partners have complemented these efforts by pre-positioning stocks to respond to life-saving needs of affected people.
“The Humanitarian Country Team and partners are fully prepared to support and assist the Government in response to this latest typhoon,” said Ms. Hall. “We will continue to support their efforts as we wait to see exactly the extent of the damage caused by Typhoon Haiyan.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that 2.5 million people will require immediate assistance in the aftermath of the typhoon, and said it would participate in the Government-led assessment.
Haiyan is the third major crisis to hit the Philippines in just two months. In October, the Bohol earthquake affected more than 3 million people, triggering landslides engulfing entire homes, ripping apart bridges and tearing down centuries-old churches. Seven cities in three different provinces were initially affected. In September, tens of thousands were forcibly displaced by armed clashes in Zamboanga City in the southern part of the country.
 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46448&Cr=Philippines&Cr1=#.Un5ZSCeIzJc
8/11/13
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• Regional officials say that the death toll after Super Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines could reach as high as 10,000.

Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria said early on Sunday that he was briefed by Leyte provincial Governor Dominic Petilla and told that there were about 10,000 deaths on the island, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings.
Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said the death toll in that city alone "could go up to 10,000".
Soria said that as much as 80 percent of the area in the path of Haiyan in Leyte province was destroyed.


"Imagine a strip one kilometre deep inland from the shore, and all the shanties, everything, destroyed," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said after visiting coastal towns in Leyte, which was one of the worst-hit provinces in the east of the archipelago.
Earlier, the Philippines Red Cross estimated that more than 1,000 people had been killed in Tacloban and at least 200 in hard-hit Samar province when one of the strongest typhoons in history slammed into the country.
Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said on Saturday that those numbers came from preliminary reports by Red Cross teams in Tacloban and Samar, among the most devastated areas hit by Typhoon Haiyan on Friday.

"An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban as reported by our Red Cross teams," she told Reuters. "In Samar, about 200 deaths. Validation is ongoing."

She said she expected a more exact number to emerge after a more precise counting of bodies on the ground in those regions.

Communications cut off
The Philippines has yet to resume communications with officials in Tacloban, a city of about 220,000 that suffered the worst of the typhoon. Reports say the sea flooded the entire city.
It was a similar situation in the town of Palo, further south. It was said to be under three and a half metres of water.
One UN official said the damage was similar to the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
The 'category five' storm weakened after hitting six spots in the Philippines and has been downgraded to 'category four', though forecasters said it could strengthen again over the South China Sea on its course to hit Vietnam.
More than 500,000 people have been evacuated in central and northern Vietnam as forecasters predict the typhoon will make landfall there on Monday morning.

According to Vietnam's national Television station, VTV, heavy rain and floods triggered from the typhoon have already killed six people in central provinces.
An average of 20 typhoons strike the Philippines every year, and Haiyan was the 24th in 2013.
Last year, Typhoon Bopha flattened three towns in southern Mindanao, killing 1,100 people and causing damage of more than $1bn.
 aljazeera.com
10/11/13 
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