Guatemalans use portraits, museum to seek missing

As darkness fell over the peeling colonial houses of Guatemala City, eight young men and women crept through the streets carrying buckets of glue and photocopied pictures of people who'd been missing for decades.

They gathered at the foot of a house stained grey by car exhaust. One man smeared cheap white paste across the base of the nearest wall. A young woman stuck up dozens of handbills with the portraits of the disappeared — a wrinkled woman in a Mayan head wrap, a man wearing the broad lapels favored in 1980s Guatemala. Spray paint hissed as another woman wrote "No Amnesty, No Pardon" in big red letters alongside the portraits of the disappeared. In less than five minutes, the eight were gone, moving quickly to avoid the police.

Their loved ones were just a few of the 45,000 people who disappeared during Guatemala's 36-year civil war, virtually all at the hands of soldiers and allied paramilitaries seeking to wipe out a Marxist guerrilla movement. Almost all the victims are believed to have been killed, often after being raped, tortured, or both, then buried in mass graves, ditches and wells. Many were hurled from helicopters into the sea or volcanic craters. In total, at least 200,000 people were killed during the war.

Yet with fewer than 1,000 of the missing found, five successive right-wing Guatemalan governments have resisted local and international pressure to launch a full-scale effort to find and identify the rest.

Now, a handful of Guatemalans have launched homegrown attempts to draw attention to what human rights groups and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights call a deplorable lack of official action in the face of one of the worst unresolved cases of human-rights violations in the 20th century.

A month ago, about 20 relatives of the disappeared started nighttime forays through the streets of Guatemala City, pasting up tens of thousands of photos of the disappeared, most simple portraits copied from passports and other official documents.

Paulo Estrada was a year old when his father, a university student, disappeared in 1984. A military document leaked to human rights groups in 1999 said that he had been killed, but it didn't say where his body was left.

"I didn't even know him," Paulo Estrada said as he traveled the city pasting up photos of his father and other missing people on a recent Saturday afternoon. "But yes, I want to know where he is and what they did to him."

Families of the disappeared and slain have also built the Museum of the Martyrs and the Union, Student and Popular Movement of Guatemala, whose grand name belies its humble setting — a 30-by-18-foot garage and four small rooms in a converted single-family home.

In Guatemala's only monument to the disappeared, the remains of industrial union leader Amancio Villatoro lie on a red cloth in a glass case, surrounded by photos of him with his family. A member of the guerrilla wing of the Guatemalan Workers Party, he was kidnapped on Jan. 30, 1984, by men in plainclothes. His remains were found in a rural military outpost 27 years later.

Samuel Villatoro, the dead man's son and director of the museum, started weeping as he described how his father was held and tortured for 57 days, according to leaked military documents.

"We don't want to close this story by burying him," said Villatoro, who was eight when his father disappeared. "There's still no justice."

Some of the self-styled activists say they believe they can pressure the state to look for the missing. Others acknowledge that their efforts are unlikely to prompt action.

The activists say government action isn't the main goal, and that they mainly want to remember their loved ones, and force others to remember them, in a country that often seems determined to forget.

The Guatemalan government did not respond to several requests to comment on the topic.

The country's aggressive attorney general has prosecuted several high-ranking officials on war-crimes charges. But the highest-ranking, former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt, saw his conviction annulled this year in a high court decision that many saw as a sign of the lingering influence of the wartime military and its backers.

Estrada and his companions say they have posted 5,000 photos since they started about a month ago.

"We want to tell a story that's denied," said Eduardo Hernandez, whose family was one of the few to find the remains of their loved ones. His relatives found the bodies of his mother, grandmother and two uncles outside Guatemala City soon after they disappeared in 1984.

"This type of activity has been like therapy for us. People stop and ask us who these people in the photos are and we tell them our story. It's our way of easing the pain that lingers because of the absence of our loved ones."

In Nov. 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled against Guatemala in the disappearance of 26 people named in the leaked military files. The government has not complied with any of the terms of the court's ruling, including launching a search for the victims as quickly as possible, and building a park or plaza in the memory of the disappeared, where the families could gather to remember their loved ones.

The amateur museum, which opened last year, also contains tributes to Felix and Cesar Augusto Estrada Mejia, brothers, students and members of a guerrilla faction. Felix vanished in 1984, his killing registered in the leaked military document. Cesar Augusto disappeared in 1990 without a trace.

Their brother, Salomon Estrada, who works at the museum, said its purpose is "to remember them, to say that they existed and their relatives still want to know where they are."

A short distance away, the photo-posters gathered for a beer at the end of a night in which they plastered some 1,500 portraits on city walls.

As they planned their next outing, organizer Francisco Sanchez said they would have to keep moving quickly to avoid being hassled by police enforcing anti-graffiti and vandalism laws.

But even some police officers have been touched by the group's efforts, Sanchez said.

"We tell our story to some police and, believe it or not, they are moved and end up agreeing with us," he said.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/11/15/3317079/guatemalans-use-portraits-museum.html

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Dealing with the dead in natural disasters

Pictures of bodies lying in the streets of Tacloban and other areas of the Philippines hit by Typhoon Haiyan are one of the starkest images of the disaster.

Survivors in desperate need of aid are also calling for the relief authorities to clear the bodies of victims, some in body bags, others causing a stench as they decompose in the open air.

But as the relief effort continues, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations have reiterated their advice that the Philippine government should focus their relief efforts on the living, rather than the dead.

"Obviously it's distressing to see bodies on the ground, and the government is doing the best it can, but from a health perspective, bodies are not a health risk," said WHO spokesman Nyka Alexander in Manila.

The WHO - which holds daily meetings with the Philippine government - and relief agencies familiar with natural disasters, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), stress that dealing with the bodies of victims should not be the top priority.

"There is a widespread and erroneous belief, even among some health professionals, that dead bodies are a source of disease and therefore a threat to public health. This is untrue," says the WHO's current fact sheet on care of the dead in disasters, available on its website.

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

"The micro-organisms responsible for the decomposition of bodies are not capable of causing disease in living people," the guidelines say.

"Dead bodies do not cause epidemics after natural disasters," says the ICRC's field manual on managing bodies after disasters. "Most infectious organisms do not survive beyond 48 hours in a dead body."

"Certain diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis, pose a potential risk for individuals who come into close contact with dead bodies, but not for the general public," the manual says.

The WHO adds that efforts to deal with the dead first - such as spraying the area around dead bodies with disinfectant - "take staff away from caring for survivors and are totally unnecessary." Mass burials without proper identification can later cause suffering for surviving relatives, the organization says.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://www.businessghana.com/portal/news/index.php?op=getNews&news_cat_id=&id=192901

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Forensics experts to start identifying 'Yolanda' bodies on Saturday

Starting Saturday, several teams of five members each, including a forensic expert and a photographer, will identify bodies in regions hardest-hit by typhoon Yolanda, the Philippines’ health department announced on Friday.

"Photos, identifying marks and belongings, and appropriate samples for possible DNA testing will be collected as practical as can be, considering prevailing harsh conditions," Health Secretary Enrique Ona said.

The system, which can handle up to 40 bodies a day, is similar to currently existing international standards on Disaster Victims Identification (DVI), the health department said.

Although it will disallow public viewing, surviving relatives will be asked to participate in the final identification of bodies at an appointed time, the health chief said, appealing for the public’s “patience and understanding.”

Once identified, the bodies will be buried based on prevailing protocol that will allow future investigations when necessary.

“It is important that we bury our dead with dignity. Rushing on things will not help at all in the long run,” Ona said.

Forensics experts will come from the World Health Organization (WHO), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the University of the Philippines (UP).

For its part, the Philippine Red Cross will support the teams by providing psychosocial support and preparing communities.

The health secretary also reiterated that dead bodies "do not cause epidemics."

"Most infectious germs do not survive beyond 48 hours. Body handlers can wear gloves when they handle bodies and must wash their hands as precautionary measure," he said.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/74925/forensics-experts-to-start-identifying-yolanda-bodies-on-saturday-health-dept-says

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Greece: 12 migrants found dead after boat capsizes

Twelve migrants were found dead Friday and 15 were rescued after a boat capsized in western Greece, authorities said.

The coast guard continued searching for more possible victims and survivors.

The Merchant Marine Ministry said the victims included four children. The incident occurred early Friday, off the coast of Lefkada, an island in the Ionian Sea and the migrants were presumed to have been headed to nearby Italy, from the western Greek mainland.

Ministry officials said the migrants were aboard a plastic boat that was 23 to 26 feet in length. The survivors were being taken to hospitals for observation, four on the island and the others on the mainland.

Fifteen migrants managed to escape alive and alerted the authorities to the accident near the island of Lefkada, a spokeswoman for the port police told AFP.

"Coast guard boats and divers are continuing the search in the Palairos area, between Lefkada and the mainland," Lefkada mayor Costas Aravanis told The Associated Press.

"The boat sank after dawn in good weather conditions, with low prevailing winds, so it's unclear how this happened. Some of the survivors managed to swim to the shore and call for help. They were not sure exactly how many people were on the boat so we still don't know if there are others still out there."

The migrants’ nationalities and port of departure were not immediately known.

Greece is one of the main ports of entry into the European Union for migrants and refugees fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

Refugee traffic has soared over the past year, because of the o

ngoing war in Syria, with arrivals by sea increasing owing to stricter controls on the Greek-Turkish northern land border. Europe's immigration policies have come under the spotlight after more than 400 asylum seekers drowned in October in two tragedies near another popular migrant port of entry, the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/15/migrant-boat-capsizesneargreeceleavingseveraldead.html

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Typhoon Haiyan: WHO warns mass burial of storm victims violate human rights

The embattled Philippine government is in a no-win situation in the aftermath of super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).

One such quandary is the rising number of deaths requiring mass burial of decomposing and unrecognisable corpses.

On Thursday, the first mass burial was held in Tacloban City where the bodies were buried in a 2-metre deep grave the size of an Olympic pool.

However, on the same day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the Philippine Department of Health that mass burials without proper identification could violate human rights. WHO cited its Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations manual which states, "Burial of bodies in common graves or the use of mass cremation is unnecessary and a violation of the human rights of the surviving family members."

Besides breaching human rights, the practice could also violate religious and cultural beliefs, particularly among indigenous communities that still observe ancestral rites in burying their dead.

WHO emphasised that the threat of infection from exposed dead bodies is limited, contrary to popular belief.

However, the government is also under pressure from residents who complain of the foul odour coming from the corpses. GMA News reported that some communities in Palo, Leyte, placed messages and signs asking for authorities to remove the bodies out of fear it would cause outbreak of diseases.

Palo also held a mass burial of about 150 corpses.

For the Tacloban mass burial, to help identify the corpses, the National Bureau of Investigation removed a part of the femur from each body. Technicians then will extract DNA from each bit of bone, said Joseph David, the crime photographer of the agency.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/522361/20131115/typhoon-haiyan-yolanda-update-who-warns-mass.htm

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Gunmen torch vital records of rights group in El Salvador

Gunmen in El Salvador early Thursday burst into the offices of a human rights agency that focuses on children missing from the country’s civil war, torching documents and taking away computers, activists said.

The attack was a major blow against a group that had reunited numerous children with families from which they were wrenched in the 1980s. It follows by less than six weeks the abrupt closure of another human rights organization, one connected to the Roman Catholic Church, which had documented massacres and other egregious abuses over several decades.

Both incidents come as the Salvadoran judiciary reviews an amnesty law that prevented the prosecutions of army officers, right-wing political leaders and leftist guerrillas for crimes committed during the 1980-92 civil war, which killed 75,000 people in that tiny country. The U.S.-backed government at the time used brutal tactics to put down a Marxist-inspired insurgency.

If all or part of the amnesty law is overturned, those prosecutions could be opened. It is believed much of the evidence would come from the files in a number of grass-roots human rights organizations that work in El Salvador.

Thursday’s incident involved the Pro-Busqueda (“search”) Assn. for Missing Children (link in Spanish), which since 1994 has attempted to find the 1,000 or more children who disappeared in the war.

“This is a clear sabotage of our work,” Pro-Busqueda Director Ester Alvarenga said in a news conference.

Gunmen tied up a guard, removed computers and other equipment, then doused the files with gasoline and set them on fire, the organization said on its website. Someone with a radio stood outside, giving the assailants instructions, according to a person briefed by investigators.

About 80% of crucial documentation is believed to have been destroyed, said Abraham Abrego, a representative of the Studies Foundation for the Application of Law, a left-leaning legal rights organization that was one of several groups denouncing the attack.

“This sends a message of terror,” Abrego said by telephone from the capital, San Salvador.

Pro-Busqueda was the subject of a 2011 Times article recounting the difficult task of reuniting families and long-lost children nearly two decades after the war ended.

Children during the conflict vanished when they fled army incursions or strayed when their guerrilla parents were killed in firefights. Some ended up in orphanages and were adopted, either by corrupt lawyers or through well-meaning applications.

Pro-Busqueda, using DNA testing and old-fashioned detective work, has pored through adoption records and interviewed survivors of massacres to track down missing children. Leads have taken them mostly to cities in the United States but also Europe.

The organization says it has put about 175 people in contact with families; the bodies of at least 50 children, found in unmarked or clandestine graves, have also served as the sad end to some cases.

Last month, the archbishop of San Salvador abruptly shut down another important human rights office, Tutela Legal, which had served as the preeminent chronicler of massacres, killings and other war crimes throughout the civil war and afterward. Bishop Jose Luis Escobar argued that with the war over, the office no longer had a purpose; human rights organizations the world over protested the decision and demanded that Tutela Legal’s enormous archive of more than 50,000 cases be preserved.

Given both incidents, “all human rights archives in the country are really at risk,” said Geoff Thale, programs director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a U.S.-based human rights group. He was in San Salvador.

“The human rights community, victims and the government need to think about systematic strategies to protect these archives,” he said.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-gunmen-torch-records-rights-group-salvador-20131114,0,5788558.story

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Exodus of multitudes, mass body collections, fields of debris in Philippines; death toll at 3621

The official death toll in the Philippines in the wake Typhoon Haiyan rose to 3,621 Friday, according to national disaster agency spokesman Eduardo del Rosario.

The toll of those injured stood at 3,850. At least 77 people are reported missing in the wake of the storm that ripped up a group of the nation's islands with winds more than three times stronger than those of Hurricane Katrina.

The fright-filled scramble to survive the storm's fury, to keep heads above the wall of ocean waves it drove, has faded away with Typhoon Haiyan's winds.

But now, a week later, sickness, hunger and thirst have settled in with the sticky, humid heat and stench of rancid flesh hanging over the apocalypse the cyclone left behind.

Traumatized survivors under improvised shelters watch over bodies of husbands, wives and children who perished and are rotting in the sun.

More bodies keep emerging from under the rubble, as the cadaver collectors' cohorts in debris-removal crews uncover them while they heave away wreckage from the roads.

Juvelyn Taniega tried to keep busy. She collected old dishes and cleaned them up, crouching on the ground near the spot where her home once stood and the place where she last saw her husband and six children alive.

She's found the bodies of three of her children, but three of them are still missing. In days, she said, no one has come to help.

"My children are decomposing," she said.

There are many like her, looking in disbelief over fields miles long of crushed wood and stone that once stood as houses, wondering if her missing loved ones are buried in them.

But the bodies that Haiyan had flung everywhere are becoming a scarcer sight, as cadaver crews pull up in trucks to collect them for mass burial in nameless graves.

Officially, 801 bodies have been counted in Tacloban by Friday morning, but thousands are feared dead here.

Whole neighborhoods were swept out to sea.

In Tacloban, children have stayed children in spite of the wretchedness around them left behind when one of the strongest storms on record roared over the Philippines a week ago.

They wandered the streets Friday, satisfying their curiosity. Parents were often nowhere in sight -- if they are even still alive.

Children are most vulnerable, UNICEF spokesman Kent Page told CNN's Anderson Cooper. It's hard to keep them safe, and to give them so much that they desperately need.

"Health, nutrition, getting them clean water, good sanitation, protection, and we have to consider education also," Kent says.

"Schools have been wiped out and getting kids into child friendly spaces, where they can feel protected, where they can get a chance to play, where they can get a sense of normalcy back in their life after going through such a devastating experience is very important."

Many families are getting their children out of town. Their mothers are evacuating them, while their fathers are staying behind to sort through the remains of their destroyed lives, Tacloban's mayor Alfred Romualdez said.

He advises other families to follow their example.

As many mouths as possible should be fed elsewhere, where there is more food and water, and children need to be in safety.

Major streets have freed up in Tacloban, once home to 220,000 people, but the hum of delivery trucks ferrying out aid is conspicuously missing. The fields of rubble have become a ghost town.

Many of the city's haggard survivors have concentrated at the airport.

Irony of fate

Some typically called upon to help need help themselves.

Ryan Cardenas has helped with recovery efforts in the Philippine Navy after two cyclones in the past two years that left hundreds dead.

But when Haiyan slammed into the Tacloban naval station where he's based, he and other sailors clung to rafters in their barracks.

Their commanding officer, who was in a separate building almost demolished by the storm, stayed alive by clutching a palm tree's trunk.

Afterward, sailors helped retrieve some bodies, according to Cardenas. One found his mother sitting dead against a wall.

Now, they're sorting through the wreckage of the naval station and awaiting orders.

"This is the worst," Cardenas said, taking a break from fixing a piece of damaged furniture. "We're both victims and rescuers."

Concerns of violence

There have been reports of the threat of violence by groups looking to steal relief aid, but the U.S. military has said that violent crime is less of a problem than the debris blocking roads to those who need aid the most.

A Philippines senator said she's learned of reports of rapes and other crimes against women, some allegedly perpetrated by convicts who escaped prison in the typhoon's aftermath, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported.

Sen. Nancy Binay particularly expressed alarm after women said on TV that the situation had become worse, with assailants going so far as to break into people's homes.

Someone to live for

Jericho, a boy whose mother, aunt and nine cousins were killed in the storm in Tacloban, tells his father he wants to leave the city on one of the planes he's seen flying overhead.

His father tells him they have to stay.

"We have no money," he says. "Just each other."

Another man whose wife and child died said he can't stop thinking of seeing his family drown in the storm.

"The first one that I saw was my youngest," he said. "She fainted, and then she drowned. The water was so fast. And then my wife, when I tried to grab her, I missed her. Then she drowned, and then I never saw her again."

Over the past week, he admits he's often thought of killing himself.

But he hasn't, he said, because he still has one child who needs him.

Friday 15 November 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/15/world/asia/typhoon-haiyan/

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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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Cyclone death toll in Somalia's Puntland rises to 140

The death toll from a tropical cyclone that hit Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region at the weekend has risen to 140, and the final figure could be 300, the government said.

A state of emergency has been declared and the government appealed for international aid. It said it needed clean water, non-perishable foods, medicines, shelter materials and blankets.

"So far we have confirmed the storm killed 140 people," said Abdullahi Ahmed, Puntland's interior minister. "We are afraid the death toll may reach 300 because many people are still missing. Roads have been cut and the only access to those areas is by air."

Weather experts at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said the cyclone, which made landfall on Saturday, brought unusually heavy storms. Latest rainfall data shows the cyclone has subsided after flooding the towns of Eyl, Dangaroyo and the Puntland capital, Garowe, though heavy rains are still expected inland.

Somalia's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, pledged to send $1m to the region. Puntland said in August it had cut ties with Mogadishu, accusing it of refusing to share power and foreign aid.

The cyclone's heavy torrential rains caused flash floods that led to the loss of about 100,000 livestock. Many fishing boats were swept into the Indian Ocean. The FAO said about 65% of Somalia's population depended on livestock.

"Knowing that livestock and fisheries are key livelihood activities in the affected regions, we anticipate the storm to heavily hurt coastal communities," said Rudi Van Aaken, the acting head of FAO in Somalia, pledging help for the survivors.

Puntland spans the north of Somalia and has largely escaped the worst of the country's upheaval over the last 20 years. Foreign powers advocating a loose federal political system for Somalia have held up Puntland as a possible model.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/puntland-cyclone-death-toll-somalia

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China reports deaths amid Typhoon Haiyan

Seven people were killed and another four were missing as of 10 a.m. Tuesday as Typhoon Haiyan continued its progress through south China, according to official figures.

The National Disaster Reduction Commission announced that more than 3 million people in China's southern provinces of Hainan and Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had been affected by the typhoon.

Haiyan, the strongest typhoon this year, arrived in Guangxi on Monday morning after having wreaked havoc in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Five fatalities occurred in Hainan and two in Guangxi.The typhoon toppled more than 900 houses, damaged another 8,500 and destroyed 25,500 hectares of crops.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-11/12/c_132882295.htm

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Foreign, local forensics experts joining NBI team in Tacloban

Foreign and local experts will be joining the forensics team of the National Bureau of Investigation that will be leaving for Tacloban City this week work to identify the bodies of victims in areas devastated by super typhoon “Yolanda.”

Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Wilfredo Tierra, head of the NBI’s medico-legal division, met with forensics experts from the International Red Cross.

The embassy of New Zealand and Interpol have also indicated that they will be joining the 15- to 20-member NBI disaster identification team.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Dr. Raquel Fortun and three other forensic Filipino forensic pathologists have also volunteered to assist with the identification of the bodies.

Reports from Tacloban and other badly hit areas indicate that many bodies remain under debris and even on the streets and many have begun to smell.

In some towns, officials said bodies found along highways had to be buried by the roadside to speed up the clearing of debris and allow the delivery of relief.

De Lima also explained that identifying the dead is important, “para ‘yung mga kaanak na gusto ng maayos-ayos na libing ay magawa ‘yon (so those who want to give them a decent burial can do so) … we have to account for each and everybody … living or dead, kailangan ma-account (they need to be accounted for).”

Five days after Yolanda struck, the experts acknowledged that the task would be difficult and their numbers were few.

They cited the work of identifying victims of the deadly Northern Mindanao flashfloods triggered by storm “Pablo” last year, which is still continuing.

The NBI team will try to work with dental records and, where possible, cadavers’ fingerprints.

However, when this is no longer feasible, they will have to turn to DNA tests, which cost at least P15,000-20,000 each.

A four-man NBI team is already in Tacloban undertaking preparatory work, including finding a place to work, ensuring transportation and determining which areas they will be to undertake an ocular inspection and determine the areas to visit.

The NBI said they would include in their work victims already buried in mass graves, which they will exhume as long as these are contained in individual cadaver bags.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/74731/foreign-local-forensics-experts-joining-nbi-team-in-tacloban

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Typhoon Haiyan: Mass burials begin

Mass burials are beginning Wednesday in the typhoon-stricken city of Tacloban, with the mayor saying he is crossing his fingers and hoping no more than 1,000 bodies will eventually fill the freshly dug pit.

Alfred Romualdez said dozens of trucks will roam the city to pick up bodies over the coming days. Many bodies have already been placed at the roadside for retrieval, he said.

Mr. Romualdez said it may take another week to assess the number of lives lost in the city. In the meantime, asked about President Benigno Aquino III‘s statement Tuesday that the death toll in the Philippines from the typhoon would likely mount to 2,000 to 2,500–compared with the 10,000 figure cited by other officials—Mr. Romualdez said it was premature to make any estimates.

“To be very realistic, whoever comes up with a number is not realistic,” he said. Many communities, he notes, haven’t yet been reached to assess their losses.

Meanwhile, the number of fatalities is becoming more evident over time, he said, as the smell from the deceased buried beneath the debris grows. “Some [neighborhood] officials say there’s no dead, it’s OK,” he said. “After three days, they smell something in the rubble, and they know there’s something here.”

Even next to his own house, he said, while he and his family originally believed there were no corpses, as time passed and a stench arose, they found six floating nearby in the water.

Part of the reason Tacloban’s fatality count is so high, the mayor said, is because many people came seeking refuge. “You have to understand Tacloban is the regional center. Every time there’s bad weather or severe storms, people come here for shelter. And the irony is they came here for shelter and we were one of the hardest hit,” he said.

About 10% of bodies in Tacloban so far, he estimates, have been retrieved and disposed of by family members. The number of the missing, meanwhile, he says is in the “high hundreds,” but adds that such a figure may be an understatement, as some families were completely wiped out with no one left to report them gone.

Yesterday, he noted, one barangay—or neighborhood—retrieved 60 dead. Another is reporting 30 lives lost. There are 130 barangays in Tacloban, he said.

According to Philippine law, he said, bodies shouldn’t be buried without being properly processed—namely, that the government will do everything they can to identify, photograph and document them before placing them into the ground.

Mr. Romualdez said that diggers finished the mass grave Tuesday, and that bodies will begin to be laid to rest there Wednesday.

Standing outside City Hall on a morning that dawned sunny and blue, Mr. Romualdez heard reports from staffer Gloria Enriquez-Fabrigas, who said that she needed tarpaulin to help bury corpses two levels deep. She also said families would have the chance to have a prayer be read at the grave. “Catholic, whatever prayer, there’s a Muslim prayer, a Christian prayer—the family can decide,” he said.

Meanwhile Wednesday, some signs of normalcy were returning to the city’s streets, the mayor said, with limited public transport beginning to resume.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/11/13/diary-of-a-disaster-mass-burials-begin/

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Philippines typhoon: President lowers death toll estimate

Philippine President Benigno Aquino says the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan may be lower than first thought.

Speaking to CNN, he said the number of 10,000 killed was "too high" and the figure was more likely up to 2,500.

The UN says more than 11 million people are believed to have been affected and some 673,000 displaced.

The relief operation is being stepped up, but many are still without aid. On Wednesday, eight people died as a rice warehouse was looted, officials said.

The earlier figure of 10,000 feared killed came from a police officer and local official and may have arisen from the "emotional trauma" of being at the centre of the disaster, Mr Aquino said.

He said 29 municipalities had yet to be contacted to establish the number of victims there.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has put the official death toll at 1,833, as of 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday. The number of injured stands at 2,623 with 84 listed as missing. Angry residents

Despite the increased aid effort, many survivors still badly need food, water and shelter, aid officials say.

There has been criticism of relief efforts, as the damage to transport links and bad weather are hindering distribution of relief supplies.

However, Philippine Interior Minister Mar Roxas told the BBC that relief efforts were on track.

"Our first priorities were, number one, to establish law and order; number two, to bring food and water to the people; and, number three, to recover the cadaver bags," he said.

"[Now] law and order has been stabilised, the supply of food and water is beginning - I'm not saying that we're anywhere near it - [but it] is beginning to be stabilised... and now we are concentrating on recovery of cadavers as well as on the distribution of the food and the relief that is coming in."

But Philippine armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala told the BBC teams were struggling to reach isolated places.

"The area is very vast and the number of helicopters, although we have a lot of helicopters at the moment, it's really a challenge for us to bring [aid] to all the places and [bring] the number of goods that are needed." 'Hopelessness and desperation'

Tacloban - a city of 220,000 on Leyte island - is particularly badly affected.

The BBC's Jonathan Head says the main road from the airport to the city is clogged with refugees and debris, with residents becoming angry at the lack of progress and increasing breakdown in security.

Bodies remain uncollected, local government has been wiped out and central government, which is meant to have taken over, is almost invisible, our correspondent adds.

Leyte congressman Martin Romualdez said there was a sense of "hopelessness and desperation" amongst many survivors.

"We are seeing a lot of relief goods, medicines, equipment coming in, but it's not reaching the people affected," he told the BBC.

"The destruction is so massive in scale and so extensive in our areas that we literally would have to rebuild from scratch," he added. "We just imagine it, our area, as a ground zero, as if a nuclear bomb had exploded above us."

On Tuesday the UN launched an appeal for $301m (£190m) to help survivors. It has already released $25m to meet immediate needs.

UK charities launch typhoon appeal

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says 11.3 million people are in need of vital goods and services, because of factors such as lack of food, healthcare and access to education and livelihoods. Security fears

Aid agencies have warned that the security situation is worsening. There are reports of food warehouses and grocery shops being ransacked and people starting to fear for their safety.

Eight people died on Tuesday as survivors mobbed a government rice warehouse in Alangalang, Leyte, officials said.

"One wall of our warehouses collapsed and eight people were crushed and killed instantly," Rex Estoperez, spokesman for the National Food Authority, said.

The police and soldiers were unable to stop the looters, who took more than 100,000 sacks of rice, Mr Estoperez added.

John Cordell, from disaster relief charity ShelterBox, told the BBC: "I think [the reports of attacks on food convoys] are deterring a lot of aid agencies from getting in there."

On Tuesday, an aid convoy travelling to Tacloban was reported to have been attacked and two of the assailants shot dead by troops.

The Philippine air force has been flying transport planes in and out of Tacloban airport, carrying relief supplies and evacuating hundreds of residents.

The US is sending its aircraft carrier USS George Washington and other navy ships to help with the relief work. The carrier is expected to arrive within the next few days. The UK's Royal Navy destroyer HMS Daring is also making its way from Singapore.

US Marine Corps Brig Gen Paul Kennedy said his troops would install equipment at Tacloban airport, enabling planes to land at night.

"You are not just going to see marines and a few planes and some helicopters," he said. "You will see the entire Pacific Command respond to this crisis."

Other countries have also pledged millions of dollars in assistance.

'Like 2004 tsunami'

Typhoon Haiyan - named "Yolanda" by Philippine authorities - struck the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday. It was one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall.

It swept through six central Philippine islands before travelling through Vietnam and southern China.

Several people in both countries were killed, according to state media reports.

In the UK, the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) group of 14 charities launched its own appeal to help the typhoon victims on Tuesday.

DEC chairman Salah Saeed compared the destruction in the city of Tacloban to that seen after the devastating tsunami of 2004.

"There is currently no food, water or electricity. We can only imagine how much worse the situation will be for families living in towns and remote villages," he said.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24920250

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Philippine forensic workers begin identifying typhoon victims (with video)

The heartbreaking task of identifying the victims of Typhoon Haiyan begins.

More than 100 body bags line this city hall in Tacloban in the central Philippines, which bore the brunt of Friday's super typhoon.

These forensic investigators say they need fingerprints, dental records and DNA.

"We will try our best to maximize the DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) but we know that the task could be overwhelming because of the sheer number. And we are running out of time," said Emanuel Aranas, deputy director for operations at Philippine National Police Crime Lab.

Decomposing flesh may make fingerprint identification more difficult and many dental records have been lost in the devastation.

All the bodies that have not been identified will be buried in mass graves.

The Philippines has been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and 10,000 are estimated to have died in Tacloban alone.



Tuesday 12 November 2013

http://www.trust.org/item/20131112101707-9h7du/

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Why typhoon Haiyan caused so much damage

The deadly typhoon that swept through the Philippines was one of the strongest ever recorded. But storms nearly this powerful are actually common in the eastern Pacific. Typhoon Haiyan's devastation can be chalked up to a series of bad coincidences.

Typhoons — known in our part of the world as hurricanes — gain their strength by drawing heat out of the ocean. Tropical oceans are especially warm, which is why the biggest storms, Category 4 and Category 5, emerge there. These storms also intensify when there's cool air over that hot ocean.

"The Pacific at this time of year is very ripe and juicy for big typhoons," says Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Once or twice a year we get a Category 5 typhoon out there."

"But it's a great rarity, fortunately, that a storm just happens to reach peak intensity when it's making landfall. And that's what happened in this case."

As it approached one large island in the Philippines, the storm pushed up into a broad bay. That created a 13-foot storm surge that caused widespread devastation at the head of that bay, in the city of Tacloban. Typhoon Haiyan struck the Leyte Gulf, in the Philippines, nearly dead-on, creating a 13-foot storm surge that funneled water into Tacloban city.

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Leyte Gulf, in the Philippines, nearly dead-on, creating a 13-foot storm surge that funneled water into Tacloban city.

Mountains also wring rainwater out of storms like these. And then there's the wind.

"So we had a triple whammy, of surge, very high winds and strong rainfall," Emanuel says.

Super Typhoon Haiyan could be the strongest on record, but scientists can't say for sure because they don't have direct measurements of the wind speed. Hurricane scientists usually fly into storms heading toward the United States to measure wind speed and barometric pressure. And the U.S. Navy used to do that for storms in the western Pacific. But Emanuel says budget cuts ended that practice decades ago.

"Since then, we've had to rely on satellites, mostly, to estimate typhoon intensity," he says. "And satellites are very good at detecting the presence of typhoons but they're not so great when it comes to estimating how strong they are."

Scientists at the U.S. Navy/Air Force's Joint Typhoon Warning Center infer that Haiyan produced sustained wind speeds of around 190 or 195 mph at its peak. John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist at Texas A&M University, says gusts blew up to 230 mph, which is as fast as a speeding race car.

YouTube "Imagine instead of having just one car, imagine millions of raindrops and debris moving at the same speed past you, and you're trying to stand in the middle of it," Nielsen-Gammon says. "That's the kind of force such a hurricane can generate."

The strongest hurricane or typhoon winds on record were from Camille, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 1969. But its 190 mph winds don't tell the whole story. The diameter of the storm matters as well.

"Camille was a very small storm, maybe about one-fifth the size of Haiyan," he says. "So it caused a lot of devastation but over a relatively limited area."

To find out whether Haiyan had record-breaking winds, scientists may turn to amateurs for information.

"Any major storm will attract storm chasers, and Haiyan was no different," Nielsen-Gammon says. "So there were people who traveled to Tacloban specifically to get footage of the storm, and they took along some instruments. So we'll probably get some data out of that."

Of course, that number is only one way to measure the overall severity of a typhoon. The mounting death toll will be another.

And climate scientists like Nielsen-Gammon and Emanuel say that as the planet continues to heat up, so will the oceans. And that means there will be more energy available for storms — and likely more Class 4 and 5 typhoons.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/11/244572227/why-typhoon-haiyan-caused-so-much-damage

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Typhoon Haiyan: Removing dead bodies 'not a priority'

The World Health Organisation has said that the bodies of victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines do not pose a public health risk.

WHO said that removing the dead was important after a natural disaster, especially for the psychological recovery of survivors, but that spending vital time and resources on removing and disinfecting the dead should not be a priority yet.

Haiyan was reckoned to be the worst storm in recorded history, with an estimated 10,000 people dead and the toll expected to grow as more victims are discovered. Large parts of the country have been devastated and relief efforts were hampered by wrecked or blocked roads and bridges.

WHO said it is working with the Department of Health in the Philippines to organise aid for survivors.

Getting aid to survivors was the main priority, said WHO. Julie Hall, Philippines representative, said: "We are working closely with the Philippine government and local authorities to assess and rapidly address the life-saving needs of the people affected by this typhoon.

"WHO has an assessment team on the ground in Bohol, and we are sending teams to Cebu and Tacloban with the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams in support of national response efforts. WHO is flying in more than two dozen health emergency relief experts and emergency health kits for the initial response."

Medical supplies to cover the basic health needs of 120,000 people for a month have been shipped in and there are enough equipment and medicines to perform 400 surgeries, she said. Supplies to treat 3,000 cases of acute diarrhoea have also been sent.

WHO has re-emphasised the findings from a report it produced in 2006 - that relief efforts should be focused first on helping the living rather than the dead.

"Governments are frequently overwhelmed by large numbers of dead and may order mass burials in the interests of protecting public health," the report said. "Initial media focus is often on the dead and graphic images of dead bodies among the debris creates pressure on governments to 'do something'.

"There is a widespread and erroneous belief, even among some health professionals, that dead bodies are a source of disease and therefore a threat to public health. This is untrue. There has never been a documented case of an epidemic occurring after a natural disaster that could be traced to exposure to dead bodies."

WHO said misconceptions about corpses often led to the "unnecessary diversion of staff and resources at a critical time".

"Pressure from misinformed journalists and media organisations can cause governments to behave inappropriately, for example, spraying the area around dead bodies with disinfectant or covering dead bodies with lime. These operations are costly, time-consuming, require complicated logistics and coordination, take staff away from caring for survivors and are totally unnecessary.

"Care of the dead and missing is an important area of work after a disaster and is clearly a major social responsibility of government. It is very important for the psychological recovery of survivors to have their dead relatives returned to them for culturally appropriate rites and disposal.

"A well-organised system for the retrieval, storage, identification and disposal of the dead is an essential part of a national disaster management structure, but like other parts of that structure, it must be properly planned and resourced."

Tuesday 12 November 2013

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/521600/20131112/typhoon-haiyan-world-health-organisation-removing-dead.htm

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Single morgue copes with Karachi's death toll

As Ghulam Hussain prepares for another day at work as manager of the Edhi Morgue, the only functioning morgue in Karachi -- a city of more than 18 million and the explosive nerve center of Pakistan -- on the other side of town a large bundle wrapped in a white shroud is loaded by two men into an ambulance.

The red-stained shroud does a poor job of hiding the bloodied corpse inside.

On arrival at the morgue, the bundle is gingerly carried inside. On a good day, this would be the first of five bodies Hussain receives.

"Sometimes, there are as many as 10 bodies in a day and other times even more," he told UPI Next.

As the police officer rattles off details about the corpse -- where it was picked up, the clothes it was wearing, bullet wounds, any identifying features -- Hussain jots them down in the register in front of him.

He writes the number 138,289 on a piece of paper and pulls it under the string holding the shroud in place. The body is then sent to cold storage, where other wrapped corpses lie side by side on steel bunks.

"If we wash the body at once it changes the way they look and families have a hard time recognizing their loved ones," explains Hussain.

The port city of Karachi accounts for about 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product, 73 percent of its income tax and 64 percent of sales tax revenues.

Hardly a day goes by when someone is not robbed or killed, or a trussed-up body is not found by the side of the road. City newspapers carry stories of such violence daily.

Through June of this year, 1,726 killings were recorded by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. About eight people have died each day this year, on average.

Last year -- the deadliest in two decades, with 2,000 fatalities, according to the commission -- it took nine months to reach 1,800 bodies. Of the total killed this year, more than half were killed by robbers or bomb blasts.

The morgue has certainly been busier this year, Hussain said.

In March, a deadly bomb attack ripped through the city's Abbas Town area, killing 48 people.

"Even the morgue's floor was covered with charred bodies," another morgue worker, Mohammad Siddique, recalled. Siddique bathes bodies before they are sent for burial.

Hussain says of every five victims of violence, two are claimed by their families, while the rest are buried in the Edhi graveyard. The morgue charges about $10 for keeping a body in its cold storage, $6 for pre-burial bathing and $23 for an austere wooden coffin.

The fee is hardly enough to cover the cost of the electricity bill, which amounts to about $4,700 a month. Maintenance of air conditioners alone costs up to $187 per month.

The morgue was set up in 1984 by the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan's largest charity organization, after founder Abdul Sattar Edhi saw the need for somewhere unclaimed dead could be buried with customary religious honor.

The foundation was provided with 10 acres of land in Mawach Goth, an area on the outskirts of the city by Mayor Abdul Sattar Aghani, burial site administrator Anwar Kazmi told UPI Next.

The land soon filled up and the government gave the foundation 20 more acres.

Now, at least six unclaimed bodies are buried there each day.

In the first six months of the year, the foundation buried 828 unclaimed bodies. Last year, it buried more than 1,500; the previous year, more than 1,700.

"Since 1985 we have buried at least 217,000 bodies here," Kazmi said.

Two government hospitals in Karachi also have cold storage facilities, but they are seldom used, the city's chief medical examiner, Jalil Qadir, said.

"Often when bodies, including those of high-profile criminals, are kept in the hospital morgues, their relatives often come and wreck the facilities and injure doctors on duty. This is perhaps why the hospital authorities are not interested in keeping their morgues functional," the chief of forensics at Karachi's Sindh Jinnah Medical University, Dr. Muhammad Ali Mondhra, told UPI Next.

Meanwhile, corpse No. 138,289 lies on the cold steel bunk in the morgue. No. 138,281 lies beside it.

People come and go. Some have brought their late loved ones in for final burial rites. Others come searching for their loved ones.

Though Hussain's job is to guard the dead, he said it gives him a deeper appreciation of life and its fluidity.

"Once we received the body of a girl who had been raped. Her body had been found lying on the street. But her father refused to own his daughter and take her body home because he was angry at his daughter for running away," Hussain said.

"I kept the body for 11 days thinking that the father would change his mind and come back to claim it. But when it started to turn blue and decompose I had to send it for burial."

Meanwhile, two men arrive at the morgue. The younger man is looking for his older brother, missing for the past three days. He is taken inside the cold storage room to see if he can recognize someone. He does.

Corpse No. 138,281 has been identified as the victim of a shooting in the troubled south zone of Karachi.

Three days after arriving at dawn, corpse No. 138,289 is taken out of cold storage with five others. A photo is taken of the face, with the body number placed below.

Night shift workers give him his final ablution. The stained shroud is replaced. He is loaded back into an ambulance and taken to his final resting place in Mawach Goth, in the graveyard for the unknown.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

http://www.upi.com/UPI-Next/2013/11/11/Single-morgue-copes-with-Karachis-death-toll/91375451955667/

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