A woman holds a baby during downpour in the devastated city of Tacloban, Leyte province, yesterday.
MANILA: The global response to the horrific typhoon disaster in the Philippines gathered pace yesterday, with the launch of a $300m appeal by the United Nations as countries and companies swung into action.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, in Manila, praised the international community’s response to Super Typhoon Haiyan but insisted much more needed to be done to help people hit by a catastrophe her organisation fears may have already killed 10,000.
“We’ve just launched an action plan focusing on the areas of food, health, sanitation, shelter, debris removal and also protection of the most vulnerable with the government and I very much hope our donours will be generous,” she told reporters.
“That plan is for $301m,” Amos said, adding it was over and above other sums already pledged and did not include $25m that the United Nations’ central emergency response fund has made available.
“At this point in time it’s extremely difficult even to get a sense of what the immediate needs are because it is very difficult to get to some of the areas affected.”
The UN estimates that more than 11.3 million Filipinos have been affected, with 673,000 made homeless, since Haiyan -- one of the most powerful typhoons ever -- smashed into the nation’s central islands on Friday.
The United States said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, with 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft aboard, was heading to the Philippines to join 180 US Marines already on the ground.
Britain boosted its aid to £10m ($15.8m) and sent a destroyer from Singapore, as well as a transport plane.
The United Arab Emirates, which has a large Filipino expatriate community, pledged $10m.
The Australian government pledged Aus$10m ($9.38m), with a team of medics set to leave today.
Tokyo said it would supply $10m in grants to provide evacuees with emergency shelters and other assistance.
AFP
