International disaster relief efforts pick up as Aquino calls for patience

Grieving survivors of a super typhoon in the mainly Catholic Philippines flocked to shattered churches on Sunday, listening to sermons and asking questions of God nine days after the storm ripped their communities apart.

The services offered a brief respite from the grinding battle to survive in the wastelands created by some of the strongest winds ever recorded and tsunami-like waves that destroyed dozens of coastal towns and killed thousands of people.

Aid has been slow in arriving, but an enormous international relief operation picked up momentum over the weekend, bringing food, water and medical supplies and airlifting basic necessities to isolated communities.

President Benigno Aquino, who has been criticized over the speed of his government's response, called for understanding of the logistical challenges as he toured some of the worst-hit areas on Sunday.

"Please have patience. These affected areas are really spread out," Aquino said, adding, "Don't lose hope."

About 300 people in Guiuan, the first town to be hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan, attended Sunday Mass in the courtyard of the ruined 400-year-old Immaculate Conception church.

Delivering the homily, Father Arturo Cablao commended the community's strength of spirit, as parishioners, some of them silently weeping, stood among twisted roofing sheets, glass shards and mud.

About 80 percent of the Philippines' 100 million people are Catholic, and their steadfast faith was on display throughout the central islands that were devastated by Haiyan.

"The Lord has strengthened our faith and made us stronger in order for us to survive and start off all over again," said Belen Curila, an elegantly dressed 71-year-old, who attended the Mass in Guiuan.

In Tacloban, one of the hardest-hit cities, hundreds of Catholics sat on flood-soaked pews at the 124-year-old Santo Nino church, whose roof was ripped off by Haiyan's ferocious winds.

Violeta Simbulan, 63, said the priest's sermon promising that God would always be there helped comfort her after her loss of two cousins and an aunt in the disaster.

Help arrives

As the morning church services were held, the international relief effort continued to build, consolidating its initially tenuous grip on the catastrophic situation.

"The arrival was pretty slow at first, but it is picking up extremely well," World Food Programme emergency coordinator Samir Wanmali said at Tacloban airport.

The operation was galvanized by the arrival on Thursday of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, which immediately began airlifting large volumes of relief supplies to inland airstrips and isolated communities.

A British warship, the HMS Daring, was due to arrive on Sunday, followed by the helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious - the largest ship in the British navy.

Japan has also confirmed it will send almost 1,200 troops to join relief efforts along with three warships, 10 planes and six helicopters - its military's single largest aid deployment.

Philippine authorities and international aid agencies face a mounting humanitarian crisis, with the estimated number of people displaced by the catastrophe rising to 4 million, from 900,000 late last week.

The Philippine government said on Sunday that 3,681 people had so far been confirmed dead in the disaster, and another 1,186 people were missing.

AFP - Reuters

(China Daily 11/18/2013 page11)