By Patrick Neer | Echo
Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the Philippines last Friday, leaving anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 estimated dead in Tacloban alone, according to Al-Jazeera.
Tacloban, the capital of the Philippines' central province of Leyte, was among the worst-affected areas. Taylor seniors Kari LoBue and Emily Bradshaw are student teaching in the capital city of Manila, located on an island farther north, and were largely unaffected by the storm.
"We woke up that morning to a text from our school's principal saying school was cancelled due to the typhoon. We experienced rain all day and slight winds, but nothing more," Bradshaw said.
Jeff Masters, a meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground, explained to Al-Jazeera that Typhoon Haiyan clocked in as the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded, with sustained winds of 195 mph and gusts upwards of 235 mph.
"There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind," Masters said.
According to Masters, these extreme speeds, while dangerous, meant that the torrential rains associated with the storm passed over the island nation faster than normal. As a result, there was less flooding than would have been expected with a storm of Haiyan's magnitude.
Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas reported the storm has left Tacloban cut off from the rest of the country, according to TIME.
"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," Roxas said.
Many people in Manila are unable to contact relatives and loved ones in the devastated areas, according to LoBue and Bradshaw.
Getting aid to Tacloban and the surrounding areas has proven a costly and slow venture. BBC's Jonathan Head claimed signs of a government-organized response did not begin to emerge until Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the BBC reported that eight people died when a food warehouse collapsed under the press of a desperate group of more than 1,000 survivors.Philippine Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras defended the government's response to the disaster, stating that although the government had been overwhelmed initially, it had responded to the disaster "quite well," according to the BBC.
While the domestic response to the disaster floundered, aid money poured in from around the world. The U.S. sent $20 million in humanitarian aid, along with 90 Marines and an aircraft carrier for logistical support in delivering further aid, the BBC reported.
On the domestic aid front, Bradshaw mentioned that Kids International Ministries (KIM), a community ministry based out of Manila, sent a team of two nurses and 10 staff to Tacloban early Wednesday morning.
"Once in Tacloban, their plan is to provide long-term shelter to supply food, water and medical aid to people affected by Typhoon Haiyan," Bradshaw said.
