10,000 feared killed in Philippines by super typhoon Haiyan

Survivors assess the damage after super Typhoon
Haiyan battered Tacloban city, central
Philippines November 9, 2013 (Reuters)

10,000 feared killed in Philippines by super typhoon Haiyan
Nov 9, 2013 | RT

An estimated 10,000 people might have been killed in the central Philippine province of Leyte alone, which was almost completely destroyed by the powerful typhoon Haiyan, local authorities said.

The typhoon has devastated up to 80 percent of the Leyte province area as it ripped through the Philippines, Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told Reuters.

“We had a meeting last night with the governor and other officials. The governor said based on their estimate, 10,000 died,” Soria said.

Most of the dead drowned or were killed by collapsed buildings, authorities say. Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim told AP that the death toll in Leyte province city alone "could go up to 10,000."

Police have been deployed to patrol the ruins of Tacloban to prevent looting as desperate residents look for food and water, said Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, describing the situation as “horrific.”
 
"The dead are on the streets, they are in their houses, they are under the debris, they are everywhere," said Lim, adding that only about 400 bodies have been recovered so far.

The Red Cross said earlier that 1,200 people we confirmed dead in the Philippines.

Roxas said earlier on Saturday that it was too soon to announce any final figures.

"The rescue operation is ongoing. We expect a very high number of fatalities as well as injured," Roxas told AP. "All systems, all vestiges of modern living — communications, power, water — all are down. Media is down, so there is no way to communicate with the people in a mass sort of way."
 
While the extent of the devastation in Leyte region has at least been confirmed, authorities are still struggling to reach some regions cut off from communications.

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