The first US Marines arrived to aid the typhoon-ravaged Philippines Monday and were stunned by the devastation, even as the looming arrival of a new storm threatened to compound the misery.
“I don’t believe there is a single structure that is not destroyed or severely damaged in some way,” Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy said. “Every single building, every single house.”
He and about 90 other Marines flew into the flattened city of Tacloban on two C-130 cargo planes and began unloading emergency supplies and surveying the extent of Typhoon Haiyan’s destruction.
Elsewhere, emergency workers found survivors scavenging for food and gagging on the stench of hundreds of corpses.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared a national state of emergency and deployed hundreds of soldiers to stop looters from rampaging through the city.
“It is terrifying here,” a resident of Guiuan told Agence France-Presse. “There are armed thieves going about. If they know that you have food stored away, they will force their way into your house and rob you at gunpoint.”
Many of the hundreds of thousands in the hardest-hit areas haven’t eaten since Friday.
“People are looting because they are hungry,” said national police chief Alan Purisima. “The supplies we placed on standby were also washed away by the storm.”
He said most of the police are missing or “affected” by the storm.
At one of the few relief centers in Tacloban, survivor Joan Lumbre-Wilson, 54, pleaded for help.
“We want an organized, coordinated brigade to collect the dead bodies, bring food and stop the looting,” she said. “We want someone who will help. We are emotionally drained and physically exhausted.”
Forecasters said a new storm was about to hit the area.
Tropical depression Zoraida was expected to bring rains and possibly trigger mudslides after it made landfall late Monday.
Officials feared that their estimate of up to 10,000 dead was far too optimistic.
“We are certainly expecting the worst. As we get more and more access, we find the tragedy of more and more people killed in this typhoon,” a top UN humanitarian official, John Ging, said.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said local officials estimate 10,000 people were killed in Tacloban alone. Several thousand remain missing elsewhere in Leyte province and in Samar province.
The Philippine National Red Cross said people were not prepared for a storm surge.
“Imagine America, which was prepared and very rich, still had a lot of challenges at the time of Hurricane Katrina, but what we had was three times more than what they received,” said Executive Director Gwendolyn Pang.
The typhoon came up at UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland.
Naderev Sano, the Philippines’ envoy, wept as he described waiting for news from relatives.
“In solidarity with my countrymen, who are struggling to find food back home . . . I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate,” said Sano, who urged delegates to work toward “meaningful” change.
His appeal got a standing ovation.