UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- As the magnitude of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan unfolds in the Philippines, the United Nations and its partners are mounting a massive humanitarian operation, battling heavy rains, blocked roads and damaged airstrips and seaports to reach millions across the region desperate for food, water and other basic necessities.
Valerie Amos, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, launched a 300-million-U.S. dollar emergency appeal from the Philippines capital, Manila, earlier Tuesday.
Meanwhile, UN and other relief agencies report that transport logistics remains the biggest challenge due to the widespread damage to infrastructure and the large amount of debris blocking airports, roads and other access routes. Electric lines have been cut and, in some places, heavy ships have been thrown inland.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) said wrecked infrastructure is making humanitarian efforts a "logistics nightmare." The agency has asked for 83 million U.S. dollars for logistics, food and emergency telecommunications equipment.
Forty-four metric tons of High Energy Biscuits (HEBs) are due to arrive in the country Tuesday from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Dubai, with additional biscuits and rice being mobilized from the region.
Also on Tuesday, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that it is appealing for 34 million U.S. dollars to aid the four million children of the Philippines who survived Typhoon Haiyan. The appeal is a first estimate of the requirements needed to help children and their families recover, and is expected to cover 6 months. It is especially pressing because many of the regions slammed by Typhoon Haiyan are reportedly without electricity, clean water, food and medicine.
Typhoon Haiyan, among the most powerful in history, slammed into the eastern Philippine city of Tacloban on Friday and cut a path of devastation barreling west across the archipelago nation. More than 11 million people have been affected by what the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has called the strongest tropical cyclone so far this year and one of the most intense on record.
At least 670,000 people have been displaced, the majority of them in evacuation centers, the rest in host communities or makeshift shelters, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The hampered humanitarian access is also "contributing to a breakdown in law and order as some desperate people loot shops for food and water," said UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Adrian Edwards said. There are also reports from government partners and others of growing tensions and trauma on the ground, the spokesman said, with unconfirmed reports of people destroying bank teller machines and robbing relief supplies.
"Women and children are begging on the streets for donations, exposing themselves to abuse and exploitation," Edwards said.
With power lines still down, UNHCR plans to distribute solar- powered lanterns to mitigate the risks of gender-based violence and enhance the protection of displaced families.
A first UNHCR airlift is scheduled for Wednesday from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to the Philippine island of Cebu, bringing tents and other non-food help. The refugee agency has also deployed an emergency team to the Philippines, including protection specialists.
"We are looking also for funding for deployment of emergency radio in a box because mass media in the areas is simply not functioning," the OCHA spokesperson, Jens Laerke said, adding that OCHA planned to distribute at least 1,000 wind-up radios to help with communication on the ground.
"Once we know that people have the bottom line survival means, we move on into the next phase. And the next phase is trying to ensure that the consequences for children of this disaster can be minimized," said Christopher de Bono, the regional chief of communication at UNICEF.
"Children are the most vulnerable people when natural disasters hit. Children are going to be traumatized. They are going to have been separated from their parents. It's a real battle," he added.
De Bono also related the observations a UNICEF colleague in Tacloban City, who described people walking aimlessly along roads, saying that "I don't know where they are going -- there is nowhere to go. They are walking because their homes are gone and they have nowhere to go."
The International Labor Organization (ILO) is working with the government, businesses and workers in the Philippines to launch an emergency employment program to help the estimated three million people who have lost their livelihoods in the wake of the devastation.
"The loss of life and the scale of the destruction are heart- breaking, and there are millions of people in desperate conditions, " said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. "They need food, water, shelter, medical care -- and they need to start rebuilding their lives right away."
The ILO is helping put in place emergency employment and "cash- for-work" programs as part of the relief appeal launched on Tuesday.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has also begun to support the Philippine government in the reconstruction process in the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors with a 1 million U.S. dollars of its resources to cover immediate needs such as seeds and fertilizers, its Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said on Tuesday.
The typhoon hit just at the beginning of the main rice-planting season, and FAO estimates that over one million farmers have been affected and hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice destroyed.
Severe impacts on coconut production in affected areas are expected, and there has also been wide-scale destruction to storage facilities and rural infrastructure. Along the coast the storm surge wiped out many fishing communities, demolishing boats and gear.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlstrom, on Tuesday called for a rethinking of the links between disasters and poverty and urged a dramatic scaling up of efforts to protect people and assets. "It is clear that the world is an unchartered territory when it comes to disaster events," Wahlstrom said.
Adding her voice to the chorus of senior UN officials who have extended their condolences to the government and people of the Philippines, Wahlstrom called the typhoon a "major setback for those of us who thought that the world was becoming more successful in reducing loss of life from major weather events."
In addition, the head of the UN World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO), Taleb Rifai, has expressed readiness to support the country in its tourism-related recovery program.
"We call upon all tourism companies, associations and tourisms from all around the world to contribute to the UN efforts being deployed," Rifai said, urging the sector to show solidarity with the Filipinos.
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Death toll in Philippines from typhoon Haiyan climbs to 1,833
MANILA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Death toll in the Philippines from typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) jumped to 1,833 with initial cost of damage increasing to 761.4 million pesos (17.4 million U.S. dollars), a senior government official said on Wednesday morning. Full story
Philippine gov't promises not to neglect any typhoon-hit area
MANILA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda Tuesday assured that all the victims of typhoon Haiyan would be assisted by government, denying that some areas are being neglected as resources are being focused only in the Tacloban City and Leyte Province. Full story
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