From what I am reading and hearing this is typical of the survivors in the Philippines. They are sparse and representative of a family. A grandmother as a lone survivor, a mother with two children as the only survivor of their families. That is the puzzle of these storms. They have these strange characteristics. There people were together yet they have lone survivors.
10 November 2013
Last updated at 17:21 ET
...Pope Francis pleaded for aid (click here) for the victims in the mostly Catholic country, saying: "Sadly, there are many, many victims and the damage is huge. Let's try to provide concrete help."
US President Barack Obama issued a message saying he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life and extensive damage" and praising the "incredible resiliency of the Philippine people".
Typhoon Haiyan has now made landfall in Vietnam, near the tourist destination of Ha Long Bay, but as a much reduced Category One, with sustained winds of up to 140 km/h (85mph).
Some 600,000 people were evacuated in northern provinces....
These survivors when they consent to leave are being evacuated to a safe place. The recovery of the land will no doubt be indelicate and swift to stop the ability of disease. Those that leave are brave people willing to accept the reality of their survival. They are not clinging to endless hope that a miracle will return their families. Unrealistic hopes that if they survived so many others must have as well. The Philippines are a strong people to live through such a tragedy and still seek their own survival as just and good.
A second town is no identified as destroyed. I am sure there will be a third and a fourth and a fifth and a sixth.
A UN official who arrived in Tacloban on Saturday, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, said he was told there had been a 3m (10ft) water surge through the city, in places up to 10m
( 30 feet).
Meanwhile Leo Dacaynos, an official in Eastern Samar province, told local radio 300 people had been found dead in a single town, Basey, with another 2,000 missing and many injured. The injured have a chance if they are attended to soon.
In Guiuan, a town of 40,000 people near where the typhoon made landfall, television footage showed flattened houses and roads strewn with debris....
Straight through the central islands, over majority of water with occasional oscillations to maintain and increase velocity.
John Vidal and Adam Vaughan
theguardian.com,
The Philippines government (click here) has firmly connected the super typhoon Haiyan with climate change, and urged governments meeting in Poland on Monday to take emergency action to resolve the deadlocked climate talks.
"We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway," said Yeb Sano, head of the government's delegation to the UN climate talks, in an article for the Guardian, in which he challenged climate sceptics to "get off their ivory towers" to see the impacts of climate change firsthand.
Sano, whose family comes from the devastated town of Tacloban where the typhoon Haiyan made landfall on Friday, said that countries such as the Philippines did not have time to wait for an international climate deal, which countries have agreed to reach in Paris in 2015....
I don't want to hear the politics of The West anymore. This isn't politics, this is life and death. Just because it isn't you and your family doesn't mean it is not real. Be grateful and thankful it is not you.
11 November 2013
Last updated at 08:35 ET
...Climate madness (click here)
At the opening of the two-week Conference of the Parties (Cop), Mr Sano said he was not just speaking for those who lost their lives but for the thousands who were now orphans.
He told the meeting he would refuse to eat until progress is made.
"In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate, this means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this Cop, until a meaningful outcome is in sight."
"What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness, the climate crisis is madness. We can stop this madness right here in Warsaw," he said....
