Thursday 14 November 2013

Philippines releases official list of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) casualties


The Philippines has launched a Web site where people searching for loved affected by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) can look into.

The official death tally has been placed at 2357. Number of injured was at 3891 while the number of missing was placed at 77.

See the list here - http://www.gov.ph/crisis-response/updates-typhoon-yolanda/casualties/

Local news outlet Philippine Star has likewise prepared a list detailing the list of survivors in Tacloban City, Leyte and Samar - http://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/11/14/1255487/partial-list-yolanda-survivors-updated

The Twitter hashtag #TracingPH was launched on Wednesday to help people locate victims of the monstrous tragedy that befell the central Philippines exactly a week ago.

Thursday 14 November 2013

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/522104/20131114/philippines-list-typhoon-haiyan-casualties.htm#.UoVANO1dVow

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Myths and realities in disaster situations


Myth: Dead bodies pose a health risk

Reality: Contrary to popular belief, dead bodies pose no more risk of disease outbreak in the aftermath of a natural disaster than survivors.

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Myth: Epidemics and plagues are inevitable after every disaster.

Reality: Epidemics do not spontaneously occur after a disaster and dead bodies will not lead to catastrophic outbreaks of exotic diseases. The key to preventing disease is to improve sanitary conditions and educate the public.

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Myth: The fastest way to dispose of bodies and avoid the spread of disease is through mass burials or cremations. This can help create a sense of relief among survivors.

Reality: Survivors will feel more at peace and manage their sense of loss better if they are allowed to follow their beliefs and religious practices and if they are able to identify and recover the remains of their loved ones.

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Myth: It is impossible to identify a large number of bodies after a tragedy.

Reality: Conditions always exist that allow for the identification of bodies or body parts.

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Myth: DNA techniques for identifying bodies is not available in most countries due to its high cost and technological requirements.

Reality: This technology is rapidly becoming accessible to all countries. Furthermore, in the case of major disasters, most countries can count on external financial and technological support including DNA technology.

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Myth: Foreign medical volunteers with any kind of medical background are needed.

Reality: The local population almost always covers immediate lifesaving needs. Only medical personnel with skills that are not available in the affected country may be needed.

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Myth: Any kind of international assistance is needed, and it's needed now!

Reality: A hasty response that is not based on an impartial evaluation only contributes to the chaos. It is better to wait until genuine needs have been assessed.

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Myth: Disasters bring out the worst in human behaviour.

Reality: Although isolated cases of antisocial behaviour exist, the majority of people respond spontaneously and generously.

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Myth: The affected population is too shocked and helpless to take responsibility for their own survival.

Reality: On the contrary, many find new strength during an emergency, as evidenced by the thousands of volunteers who spontaneously unite to sift through the rubble in search of victims after an earthquake.

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Myth: Disasters are random killers.

Reality: Disasters strike hardest at the most vulnerable group, the poor -- especially women, children and the elderly.

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Myth: Locating disaster victims in temporary settlements is the best alternative.

Reality: It should be the last alternative. Many agencies use funds normally spent for tents to purchase building materials, tools, and other construction-related support in the affected country.

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Myth: Things are back to normal within a few weeks.

Reality: The effects of a disaster last a long time. Disaster-affected countries deplete much of their financial and material resources in the immediate post-impact phase. Successful relief programs gear their operations to the fact that international interest wanes as needs and shortages become more pressing.

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Myth: Starving people can eat anything

Reality: It is widely held that people who are starving will be very hungry and eat any food that can be supplied. This attitude is inhumane and incorrect. Even if hungry initially, people often do not consume adequate quantities of unvaried and unfamiliar foods for long enough. More importantly, the starving people are often ill and may not have a good appetite. They will therefore languish in an emaciated state or get even sicker.

Even someone well-nourished would fail to thrive on the monotonous diets of three or so commodities (e.g. wheat, beans and oil) that is all that is available, month in, month out, to many refugees and displaced people. And this is aside from the micro-nutrient deficiencies that often develop. This misconception starts, in part, from a failure to agree on explict objectives for food assistance -- which should surely be to provide for health, welfare, and a reasonably decent existence and help in attaining and acceptable state of self-reliance and self-respect. Source: Lancet, Vol. 340, Nov 28, 1992

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Myth: Children with diarrhoea should not be intensively fed

Reality: A view from many years ago, and from non-emergency situations, sometimes persists -- namely, that children must be rehydrated (and diarrhoea prevented) before re-feeding. This policy is incorrect and, with severely malnourished children, it can be fatal. Any child with diarrhoea must be fed, if necessary with a liquid diet by nasogastric tube, at the same time as additional fluids are given. Even if the diarrhoea is profuse, some nutrients are absorbed and can start the recovery process. To begin feeding after rehydration will often be too late. Source: Lancet, Vol. 340, Nov 28, 1992

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Myth: Refugees can manage with less.

Reality: This misconception dehumanizes the refugee. It implies that, once uprooted, he or she no longer has the basic human rights to food, shelter and care - that these are now offered as charitable acts and that refugees can (or should) make do on much less than non-refugees. In fact they will often need more than their normal food requirement at first if they have become malnourished and sick before arrival at a camp and need rehabilitation; and may suffer exposure from inadequate shelter. If the only food source is provided by camp organizers, these rations have to be adequate in all nutrients. This requires a mixed food basket, including fruits and vegetables. If this cannot be ensured then trading may have to be encouraged if refugees are not to become undernourished and deficient in micro-nutrients. The fact that some foods may be traded, to add variety to the diet, is no grounds for reducing the ration. Source: Lancet, Vol. 340, Nov 28, 1992

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Myth: Trading foods indicates that people do not need all of the rations.

Reality: If the only food source is provided by camp organizers, these rations have to be adequate in all nutrients. This requires a mixed food basket, including fruits and vegetables. If this cannot be ensured then trading may have to be encouraged if refugees are not to become undernourished and deficient in micro-nutrients. The fact that some foods may be traded, to add variety to the diet, is no grounds for reducing the ration. Source: Lancet, Vol. 340, Nov 28, 1992

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Myth: A standard ration is suitable for all populations.

Reality: The recommended per caput calorie output for a refugee population should vary according to demographic composition, nutritional and health status of the population (allowing for an extra "catch-up" allowance where people are malnourished), the activity level the intake is intended to support, environmental temperature, and likely wastage in the chain from supply of food in a country to its consumption by individuals. In other words there is a range of requirements for dietary energy, which will depend on the circumstances, and use of a single figure is likely to lead to either deficit or wastage. The figure of 1900 kcal (commonly assumed to be of general application) often underestimates what is needed. Source: Lancet, Vol. 340, Nov 28, 1992

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Myth: Energy adequacy means nutritional adequacy.

Reality: The diet needs to be adequate in both quantity and quality, meeting requirements for calories, protein, and micro-nutrients. Where refugees are completely dependent on the ration provided -- for example, in the early stages of an emergency or in closed camps, where trading for diversity cannot be ensured -- the ration must be designed to meet the requirements of all nutrients in full. Often, a ration is designed to meet minimum energy requirements and micro-nutrients are left to look after themselves. How micro-nutrient needs are to be met must be made explicit, especially when the ration provided is calculated on the basis of fully meeting energy needs. Foods should be diverse and palatable, and the special needs of weaning children must be met.

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Myth: Disasters cause deaths at random.

Reality: Disasters tend to take a higher toll on the most vulnerable geographic areas (high-risk areas), generally those settled by the poorest people.

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Myth: It is best to limit information on the magnitude of the tragedy.

Reality: Restricting access to information creates a lack of confidence in the population, which can lead to misconduct and even violence.

Thursday 14 November 2013

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/11/14/13/myth-dead-bodies-pose-health-risk

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Seven killed in Karnataka bus fire


Seven passengers were burnt to death and 40 injured Thursday when a luxury bus headed to Mumbai caught fire after ramming into the railing of a bridge in Karnataka, police said.

The horrific accident took place around 2.45 a.m. on National Highway 4 near Haveri town, about 330 km from here. "The private bus, which was on its way to Mumbai from Bangalore, crashed into the railing at high speed and caught fire as its fuel tank cracked," Haveri Superintendent of Police M. Shashi Kumar told IANS.

The ghastly accident comes after the Oct 30 tragedy in Andhra Pradesh when 45 passengers perished when a private luxury bus going from Bangalore to Hyderabad burst out in flames near Mahabubnagar.

In the Thursday incident, 43 men, six women and a girl child were in the bus, operated by the Bangalore-based Nationals Travels. The bus left Bangalore late Wednesday after picking up passengers from seven points. It was scheduled to reach Mumbai Thursday afternoon. "We are yet to identify the victims as their bodies are burnt beyond recognition. An autopsy and DNA test will be conducted to identify the bodies with the help of their relatives," Kumar said.

Six of the 40 injured were admitted in a state-run hospital at Hubli, 50 km from Haveri town, as their condition was critical. The remaining injured were treated in a hospital at Haveri for burns. A spokesman for the bus operator told IANS one of the two drivers died in the accident. The other driver fled from the accident spot and is absconding.

Driver Mayas Pasha, who died, drove the bus from Bangalore up to a point from where the other driver, Mujaid, took over the wheels from him. The cleaner was injured in the incident, a spokesperson noted. Most passengers were asleep when the fire broke out suddenly. The survivors escaped by smashing the emergency exit window and jumping out of the burning bus.

Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy blamed speeding for the tragedy. "Over-speeding appears to the cause of the accident. We are ordering a probe to ascertain the reason though the driver could be at fault," Reddy told reporters. The bus operator announced Rs.5 lakh as compensation each to the victims' kin after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah declared Rs.1 lakh ex-gratia.

Among the passengers were two foreigners, including one from South Africa. Police are scanning the passengers' list to verify the second foreigner's nationality. Zameer Ahmed Khan, a Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) lawmaker from Bangalore, is one of the partners in the bus travel company. "The brand new Volvo bus was inducted in October to operate on the Bangalore-Mumbai route with a valid permit, a fitness certificate and a third party insurance cover," Khan told reporters at Haveri.

Ever since the Oct 30 bus fire, the state transport department has intensified checks on all state-run and private buses operating on intra-state and inter-state routes to ensure the safety of the passengers. Khan blamed Volvo for the deaths, suspecting a technical flaw in the diesel tank. "It is too much of a coincidence that two luxury buses of Volvo make have gone up in flames in similar circumstances in a fortnight. We want the government to order an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the fire in its buses," Khan said.

Volvo offered to cooperate with the authorities. "Our technical experts will investigate the incident with the support of our safety experts," Volvo said late Thursday.

Thursday 14 November 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-seven-killed-in-karnataka-bus-fire-1919284

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Typhoon Haiyan: Tacloban’s convoy of the dead is turned back as the bodies pile up


The rusting white truck began its grim journey shortly after 10.30am in the increasing heat of a tropical day.

Negotiating its way over a tangle of rubble, timber and fallen power cables, it passed groups of bystanders who gaped, covering their noses with T-shirts or outspread hands as they viewed its sorry cargo.

On board, guarded by rifle-toting Philippine army troops, were 34 decomposing corpses. Until last Friday they were residents of the bustling city of Tacloban, alive until the storm came.

The white truck and small entourage of vehicles formed a funeral procession for a mass burial – the first of what promises to be many.

But 15 minutes along a highway littered with the remains of a city, a gunshot rang out and the military convoy came to a sudden halt.

Petrified soldiers leapt to the road and sprinted for cover in the glass-strewn lobby of an empty building. Locals melted into the fields and shacks beyond.

The troops had no doubts as to the culprit for the suspected attack. “New People’s Army,” they muttered, referring to a shadowy communist rebel group said to operate in some corners of the Filipino countryside.

As they returned to their vehicles and raced back to the city centre, rifles and handguns trained on the blur of collapsed buildings around them, it became clear that there would be no mass burials that day.

The incident, witnessed by The Telegraph on Wednesday morning, underlined the immense challenges facing government officials and aid workers as they battle to piece Tacloban back together again.

Five days after disaster struck, the bodies continue to pile up on street corners, roundabouts and at local morgues. The security situation appears to be deteriorating, with nerves stretched among locals and military and rumours spreading of the NPA’s involvement in a spate of violent crimes in the city’s under-curfew downtown area.

The funeral procession had set out from the Tacloban City Pasalubong [Souvenir] Centre, a palm-lined compound that was once a leading local tourist attraction selling postcards and handicrafts.

Since the weekend, the seaside shopping centre has been transformed into an improvised open-air morgue where corpses are stored in advance of the mass burials. The bodies have not stopped arriving.

On Wednesday inside its gates, almost 200 bodies were splayed out beneath black “Department of Health” body bags, putrefying in the scorching heat.

On one open-topped truck, dozens more were stacked, their bodily fluids seeping down the vehicle’s bodywork before forming a potent rust-coloured puddle on the ground.

Senior Supt Emmanuel Aranas, the forensic officer co-ordinating Tacloban’s burials, said many more victims would arrive over the coming days and weeks. Thousands are believed to have died here. “We are expecting more bodies,” he said. “Right now we have 111 [over there] and 74 [here]. The 74 are Monday. The 111 are Tuesday. It’s difficult to know when it will stop. We’ve been here for two or three days already, and we are still finding cadavers.”

Mr Aranas said the health risk from so many unclaimed dead was minimal and insisted that the situation was coming under control. But a five-minute stroll through the grotesque, corpse-strewn wasteland that is now Tacloban gives the lie to that claim.

Even now, scores of bodies continue to litter the city’s streets, abandoned by desperate relatives or total strangers outside churches, government buildings or on the patio of an abandoned petrol station.

“At midnight, the people bring the bodies here,” sighed Renato Metran, the 56-year-old deacon of the Iglesia Ni Cristo church. Here dozens of bloated and often faceless corpses form what might be a protective circle around a statue of Saint Joseph, their hands, feet and bellies distorted. “There are so many dead,” said Mr Metran, staring out at the ghoulish scene.

Black body bags also line each side of the city’s main thoroughfare — the National Highway – with names or partial names scrawled on to white labels in washed-out orange ink.

“Maria Gutierez,” read one such tag. “Connie (torso),” stated another. A third, in capitals, said: “RONALYN CANETE & BABY!” Inside the office of a collapsed Shell petrol station that has become a notorious disposal site for the dead, a woman’s intricately manicured feet poked out from beneath a blue and white sheet. Beside her, the right leg of an infant, perhaps aged three or four, could also be seen.

The child’s body had been covered with a red and white windscreen shade that read: “Improve Performance. Whatever you drive.” Some are making a good business out of Tacloban’s tragedy.

At the Cebu Rolling Hills funeral parlour, bosses have given their fleet of four battered black Mercedes hatchbacks the task of cleaning up the city’s streets — something the city’s shattered government has so far failed to achieve.

Gerson Jandoc, a company security guard who has now turned his hand to corpse collecting, said demand was so great that the company was running out of materials.

“We have many, many bodies. I wanted to help,” the 29-year-old said to explain his recent career change. “The problem is we don’t have any more body bags.”

Mr Jandoc had already hauled six bodies into his hearse by 9am on Wednesday morning and taken them off to the funeral parlour. His third mission of the day was to remove the body of 70-year-old Marina Cortez from the roadside and prepare her horribly mutilated corpse for burial.

“If you have to wait for the army it will take too long. It is up to us to make our move,” said Nelson Javier, 44, the woman’s nephew, who had paid 53,000 pesos (£740) for the service. He stood and watched as Mr Jandoc and a colleague pulled Ms Cortez’s remains on to a stretcher before wrapping her in white plastic, securing her body in place with green tape and finally slotting her into the car’s rear.

But for some survivors, it is still too early to think about burials.

Handwritten signs appealing for information about missing loved ones have been pasted on to many homes beside placards warning off looters.

Five days after the disaster, Mark Philip, a local fisherman, was still scouring the wreckage of his family home for the body of his eight-year-old son, Mark Anthony. “I lost my son,” he said.

“We haven’t find him yet. “I was trying to save my son but [a piece of] timber hit my head. I lost my son to the water.”

Asked if the police or government were helping, he shook his head. “We haven’t seen any of the bodies moved yet.” Back at the tourist centre-turned-morgue, Mr Aranas reassured reporters that the mass burials would begin and Tacloban’s “stink” would soon be gone.

But that was before the white truck left and before the shooting began.

When the funeral convoy returned to the centre with its cargo intact, new bodies had appeared alongside the iron fence of the morgue – soon to be counted and added to the already terrible number.

Armando Belo Surrao, 48, whose girlfriend had lost her father to the typhoon, surveyed Tacloban’s increasingly nightmarish landscape. “It’s like being in a movie only with the smell and the taste and the [special] effects,” he said. “It is surreal.”

Thursday 14 November 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/philippines/10447057/Typhoon-Haiyan-Taclobans-convoy-of-the-dead-is-turned-back-as-the-bodies-pile-up.html

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