Philippines buries some dead as survivors beg for help

Terra Daily via AFP: Scores of decaying bodies were laid in mass graves Thursday as overwhelmed Philippines authorities grappled with disposal of the dead, while the living begged for help after the typhoon disaster. The expected arrival later in the day of the USS George Washington, a huge aircraft carrier with 5,000 sailors aboard, offered some hope for the hungry and thirsty left to roam the ruined city of Tacloban.

But almost a week after Typhoon Haiyan swept through the country's central islands, crushing settlements and laying waste to an already poor area, the stench of putrefying flesh hung heavy in the air. "I do feel that we have let people down," conceded United Nations humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos, who visited Tacloban on Wednesday.

"Those who have been able to leave have done so. Many more are trying. People are extremely desperate for help," she told reporters in Manila. "We need to get assistance to them now. They are already saying it has taken too long to arrive. Ensuring a faster delivery is our... immediate priority."...

A Boeing 777, capacity 100 tonnes, has flown from Dubai to Cebu carrying 8,000 shelter kits. The shelter kits consist of plastic sheeting, rope and rope tensioners, and each one will keep a family of five sheltered from the elements. This is the first of several UK-funded humanitarian flights scheduled to fly from both Dubai and the UK in the coming days as part of the UK’s response to Typhoon Haiyan. Photo by DFID - UK Department for International Development, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license