Lack of body bags a problem in typhoon-hit Tacloban

Rescue workers pour disinfectant on uncollected bodies along a street in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban City on Wednesday, November 13. Dozens of unidentified cadavers have been buried in a mass grave to prevent the possible spread of an epidemic. AP/Aaron Favila

By MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB,
GMA News
November 13, 2013 7:38pm

Lack of body bags is hindering the collection of decomposing bodies that litter typhoon-hit Tacloban city, according to its mayor, Albert Romualdez, on Wednesday.

In a phone interview, Romualdez said the number of bodies continues to rise in Tacloban, a once vibrant city of over 220,000 residents that bore the brunt of monster winds and waves caused by Yolanda last Friday.

"There's a rise in casualties," Romualdez said, noting that the number of fatalities rose from more or less 200 to an estimated 500.

"We also lack... body bags. Some of them just arrived today. We're having some problems in the collection of cadavers," he added.

Besides the lack of body bags, Romualdez also noted the lack of mobility in collecting the dead and clearing the roads choked with the debris caught in the storm.

He said once the trucks were finished clearing the roads, they may also be used in retrieving the bodies.

Romualdez said he would receive the report on the situation in the city on Wednesday night.

Tacloban was one of the areas severely hit by Yolanda, which brought storm surges from both sides of the city, which lies on a cove between a bay and a sea strait.

The national police has deployed over 700 policemen in Leyte amid reports of looting by hungry survivors clamoring for immediate response from a government overwhelmed by one of the country's worst natural disasters.

President Benigno Aquino III said the death toll from the world's strongest typhoon to hit land may reach 2,000 or 2,500, lower than the 10,000 previously estimated, Reuters reported. Official death toll from the typhoon was 2,275 as of Wednesday afternoon based on the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

Yolanda, which brought monster winds and tsunami-like waves last Friday, is officially the fourth strongest tropical cyclone in world history in terms of overall strength. — KBK, GMA News