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Interview: Typhoon-destroyed Tacloban faces 3 challenges, need more support: mayor

Posted on November 14, 2013

TACLOBAN, Philippines, Nov. 14 (PNA/XINHUA) — Alfred Romualdez, mayor of Tacloban, the city which was nearly totally destroyed by the typhoon “Haiyan” in the Philippines, Wednesday said the government faced three challenges and needed more support.

“I hope international community will learn more from here, because we’re running the time table and we can not wait too long, “he said in a interview with Xinhua.

It was believed that the death toll has risen to nearly ten thousands mainly due to the collapse of houses and flood caused by the strongest storm in Philippines history.

“The number has been up to more than 500 and the missing people are also in hundreds. It is difficult to count because it is very hard to find the bodies in the mix of rubble and debris,”said Romualdez.

In Romualdez’ opinion, the cadavers, and lack of power and transportation are main challenges faced by the local government.

Alfred believes that it will take more days before they can recover the bodies.

“Some are already have been put in bags and ready for burial and I hope till tomorrow maybe almost half of them we found will be buried.”

Lack of transportation and proper ways to deal with the bodies make the city more chaotic, where more than 90 percent of buildings toppled down in the disaster.

“At every part of the city in the downtown area including the city hall, you can smell decaying of bodies and things may get worse because of difficulties in power and transportation. We need more help to separate victims from the debris,” he added.

Typhoon Hainan’s wrath put Tacloban totally in the dark last November 8.

“I heard the power will return to normal within a minimum of 30 days. I think it will take longer because you can not see a single electrical post still standing and to put all electrical post in Tacloban city is a big job. I don’t know how long it will be. It will be faster with the help of international teams,” he said in anxiety.

Another task is clearing the blocked roads and highways. “We need more heavy equipment to deliver food and clean up the ruins. Now it takes much longer than usual to transport.”

The mayor added they need trucks as well as drivers. “The military was supposed to do this but the militaries are limited, who also secure the city and distribute the relief goods.”

Romualdez thanked the local governments in other provinces sending their trucks. “I hope tomorrow we are able to work faster and more efficient.”

The victims who can not been given sufficient food and water also need cars or mode of transport to go to cities like Cebu and Ormoc for relatives’ help. “We need free transportation to transfer women and children out of the city of Tacloban,” he said.

“Tacloban is very small city compared to other cities, it is better to have more teams coming here so we can finish the job faster, specially the decaying bodies that is what has to be done as soon as possible.” (PNA/XINHUA)
LAM/JSD

 

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