Typhoon Haiyan has all but passed through the Philippines, and now, the severity of its aftermath increases by the day. Over 10,000 are believed to have died from the storm, making it one the most deadly natural disasters ever for a country disproportionally affected by typhoons, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions, The Australian reported.
"It's going to be classified as one of the worst, if not the worst, in decades," Ricky Carandang, a presidential spokesman, told The New York Times.
No town had been hit harder than Tacloban, which consumes a large portion of the western end of the San Juanico strait. The thriving city of 220,000 must be evacuated because of food shortages and streets piled high with debris. Over 1,500 of its citizens died, The Times reported.
Many still remain within Tacloban's borders. To protect the city against itself and hasten relief efforts, government officials have declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. Piles of rubble, destroyed airports, and a lack of military oversight have made it difficult for relief efforts to have any sort of impact. In one case, a plane carrying workers and food docked at a collapsed bridge, where it was nearly overtaken by hungry Tacloban citizens. The Times reported. Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines Red Cross, urged greater military and police authority as more relief planes are expected to arrive throughout the recovery period.
Winds reaching speeds of 140 mph collapsed buildings, created deadly airborne debris, made 10-foot waves in a "tsunami-like surge," said Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and snapped "coconut trees like twigs," according to The Australian. Even palm trees -- and their preternatural ability to bend against strong winds -- were uprooted.
In Haiyan's aftermath, 1.2 million have been left homeless. Bodies decompose in the streets. Roads are completely obstructed by piles of debris, and some stricken communities haven't yet been contacted by disaster workers, according to The Australian.
"There are cars thrown like tumbleweeds and the streets are strewn with debris," said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, the head of a UN disaster assessment coordination team at Tacloban. "The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami," Stampa added, speaking of the 2005 storm that claimed 220,000 lives, according to The Times.
