After days of logistical logjams and transportation paralysis, relief supplies have begun pouring into the ravaged midsection of the nation, with U.S. Osprey aircraft and C-130 cargo planes delivering pallets of rice and water to the airports in Tacloban, on Leyte Island to the west, and Guiuan, on Samar Island. International relief organizations have been fanning out across the disaster zone. According to UNICEF, 13 million people have been affected by the typhoon.
The U.S. Navy says that aircraft from the carrier George Washington have flown 77 sorties and delivered 11 tons of water and medical supplies since it arrived on Thursday. Once on the ground, most of the aid is distributed by Philippine officials.
But while hard-hit urban areas are finally getting adequate supplies to stave off hunger and thirst, the region's rural hinterland has been largely left to fend for itself in the week since Typhoon Haiyan hit.
On Saturday, members of a U.S. medical team touched down in Homonhon, a fishing island of 1,500 that was the first to bear the full brunt of Haiyan as it swept west. Margaret Aguirre, communications director for the team from the International Medical Corps, said it was the first help the residents had received since the storm struck. "They were in desperate shape," she said, describing a range of untreated injuries and diseases, mostly advanced infections and ailments from a week of living unsheltered in the elements.
In Quinapondan, most people have been surviving on coconuts and camote, a sweet potato that residents have been digging up from their waterlogged fields.
safe water is in limited supply
Since the typhoon hit, Danny Estember has been hiking three hours round-trip into the mountains each day to obtain what he can only hope is clean water for his five daughters and two sons.
The journey is necessary because safe water is desperately scarce in this storm-ravaged portion of the Philippines. Without it, people struggling to rebuild and even survive risk catching intestinal and other diseases that can spread if they're unable to wash properly.
While aid agencies work to provide a steady supply, survivors have resorted to scooping from streams, catching rainwater in buckets and smashing open pipes to obtain what is left from disabled pumping stations. With at least 600,000 people homeless, the demand is massive. "I'm thirsty and hungry. I'm worried — no food, no house, no water, no money," said Estember, a 50-year-old ambulance driver.
