Sunday, November 10, 2013

More than 10,000 feared dead in Typhoon YOLANDA


The death toll from a super typhoon that decimated entire towns in the Philippines could soar well over 10,000, authorities warned Sunday, making it the country's worst recorded natural disaster.
The horrifying estimates came as rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday.
Police said they had deployed special forces to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal and would send military help.

"Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families," high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, told AFP, as he warned of the increasing desperation of survivors.
"People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk... I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger."
Authorities were struggling to even understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, let alone react to it, with the regional police chief for Leyte saying 10,000 people were believed to have died in that province alone.
"We had a meeting last night with the governor and, based on the government's estimates, initially there are 10,000 casualties (dead)," Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told reporters in Tacloban.
"About 70 to 80 percent of the houses and structures along the typhoon's path were destroyed."

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Supertyphoon YOLANDA - at least 100 people dead

Aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda :
At least 100 people may have died in the Philippines from the impact of super typhoon Haiyan, Bodies were lying in the streets, according to an initial report from an aviation officer in the central city of Tacloban, said Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
Haiyan, possibly the strongest storm ever to hit land, was barrelling out of the Philippines after having flattened houses, triggered landslides and floods and knocked out power and communications across a number of islands.

A car lies upside down outside an airport after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city in central Philippines November 9, 2013. Possibly the strongest typhoon ever to hit land devastated the central Philippine city of Tacloban, killing at least 100 people, turning houses into rubble and leveling the airport in a surge of flood water and high wind, officials said on Saturday. The toll of death and damage from Typhoon Haiyan on Friday is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers and soldiers reach areas cut off by the massive, fast-moving storm which weakened to a category 4 on Saturday.

A view inside a damaged airport after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city in central Philippines November 9, 2013. Possibly the strongest typhoon ever to hit land devastated the central Philippine city of Tacloban, killing at least 100 people, turning houses into rubble and leveling the airport in a surge of flood water and high wind, officials said on Saturday. The toll of death and damage from Typhoon Haiyan on Friday is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers and soldiers reach areas cut off by the massive, fast-moving storm which weakened to a category 4 on Saturday
A damaged airport is seen as residents wait for relief goods after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city, central Philippines, November 9, 2013. Possibly the strongest typhoon ever to hit land devastated the central Philippine city of Tacloban, killing at least 100 people, turning houses into rubble and leveling the airport in a surge of flood water and high wind

A resident uses a wheelbarrow to recover the body of a victim after Typhoon Haiyan hit the municipality of Coron, Palawan province in central Philippines November 9, 2013. Typhoon Haiyan, possibly the strongest storm ever to hit land, has devastated the central Philippine city of Tacloban, killing at least 100 people and destroying most houses in a surge of flood water and high winds.








Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Bagyong Yolanda - Supertyphoon Yolanda Updates

Signal No. 1
(30-60 kph winds may be expected in at least 36 hours)
None Northern Samar
Eastern Samar
Samar
Leyte
Southern Leyte Biliran Island
Camotes Island Surigao Del
Norte
Siargao Island
Dinagat Island
Surigao Del Sur Agusan Del Norte
Northern part of Agusan Del
Sur
Estimated rainfall amount is
from 10.0 - 30.0 mm per hour
(Heavy - Intense) within the 600 km diameter of the
Typhoon.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Bohol Rocky Wall

A deadly earthquake that struck the Philippines last week created a spectacular rocky wall that stretches for kilometres through farmlands, astounded geologists said Thursday.
Dramatic pictures of the Earth-altering power of the 7.1-magnitide quake have emerged as the government worked to mend the broken central island of Bohol, ground zero of the destruction.


A "ground rupture" pushed up a stretch of ground by up to three metres (10 feet), creating a wall of rock above the epicentre, Maria Isabel Abigania, a geologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told AFP.
"Our people have walked five kilometres (three miles) so far and not found the end of this wall," she said, as experts from the institute surveyed the damage.
"So far we have not gotten any reports of people getting swallowed up in these cracks. The fault runs along a less-populated area."
A photograph on the institute's website showed part of the rock wall grotesquely rising on farmland behind an unscathed bamboo hut.
Another house was shown lodged in a crack of the Earth, while a big hole on the ground opened up at a banana farm.
Renato Solidum, head of the institute, said the ground fissures from the quake, which killed 198 people on Bohol and two nearby islands, were among the largest recorded since the government agency began keeping quake records in 1987.
"Most of our other quake records show a lateral (sideways) tearing of the earth, though we've also had coral reefs rising from the sea," he said, citing a 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the central island of Negros last year.
The Philippines lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire made up of chains of islands created by volcanic eruption that are also frequently hit by earthquakes.
President Benigno Aquino told reporters Thursday the institute had assured him the worst was over, though Bohol would continue to be hit by aftershocks over the next few weeks.
"There is no immediate danger" either from the aftershocks or from the ground fissures, said Aquino, who slept in an army tent there overnight Wednesday in solidarity with the survivors.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

7.2-magnitude earthquake hits Bohol - October 15,2013

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Bohol Tuesday morning and damages to properties are expected, Phivolcs said.

The center of the strong quake was recorded in Carmen, Bohol around 8:12 a.m., according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

The earthquake is of tectonic origin, Phivolcs added.

The quake was also felt in provinces around Bohol, with Intensity VII noted in Tagbilaran, nearby areas such as Inigaran, Negros Occidental (Intensity VI), Intensity V in Iloilo City; La Carlota; Intensity IV in Masbate City; Roxas City; San Jose, Culasi, Antique; Guihulngan, Negros Oriental; and Intensity III - Davao City.

An aftershock was also recorded about 8:28 am, with a 3.4-magnitude quake.  

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) also asked its local offices to "undertake precautionary measures."

below are some images taken from cebu and bohol :