The top United Nations relief official flew to the Philippines on Monday to help lead the global response to the powerful typhoon that killed thousands and upended the lives of nearly 10 million people in the country's midsection. International aid groups mobilized to rush food, water and sanitation supplies to the victims, a struggle in the face of impassable roads, obliterated seaports and severely damaged airstrips.
European Pressphoto Agency
Valerie Amos, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, was expected to arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday. She released $25 million from a special fund to help pay for immediate assistance.
The move by the relief official, Valerie Amos, to take more personal charge of the effort came three days after the typhoon, Haiyan, left a path of destruction across 41 provinces in the Philippines and as the scope of its devastation was only starting to become clear. The storm was believed by some climatologists to be the most powerful ever to make landfall.
In the flattened city of Tacloban, where as many as 10,000 people may have died and corpses were on the streets, rainfall that began late Monday was adding new complications to the relief effort. Earlier it took supply convoys three hours just to traverse the seven-mile route into town from the airport, said John Ging, the operations manager of United Nations emergency relief coordination.
Asked if he thought the death toll could rise, he said, "We hope it doesn't get any higher, but we have to be prepared for the worst."
At a news briefing at the United Nations headquarters, Mr. Ging said Ms. Amos, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and the emergency relief coordinator, was expected to arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday. She released $25 million from a special fund to help pay for immediate assistance and was beginning what aides called a flash fund-raising drive. At least $35 million in additional aid was pledged by other governments on Monday.
"All the focus is on a rapid mobilization of a very large response," Mr. Ging said. "This is quite unprecedented in scale."
The effort led by the United Nations came as the United States significantly increased its assistance to the Philippines. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who had ordered 90 Marines and a half dozen aircraft to assist over the weekend, on Monday ordered the aircraft carrier George Washington and other Navy ships in the Pacific "to make the best speed for the Republic of the Philippines."
The George Washington, which carries 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft, was ordered to depart from a port visit in Hong Kong, and the crew was recalled from shore leave immediately. Mr. Hagel also reiterated the American intent to help the Philippine government determine "what, if any, additional assets may be required."
The Philippine government was grateful for the assistance, but it also appeared anxious to retain basic strategic controls, which may have had the unintended consequence of hampering some relief efforts. The Tacloban airport control tower was destroyed, for example, but the government did not ask the United States military to help manage air traffic control with a temporary replacement setup, as it has sometimes done elsewhere. Without a tower, all pilots flying into Tacloban were forced to land by sight, slowing deliveries.
The outpouring of support and sympathy was seen around the world, but it was particularly strong in the United States, stoked by social media publicity and the large size of the Filipino population, the second-largest Asian-American group in the country. Some aid groups reported generous pledges from the New York area, reflecting what they called the sympathy effects caused by Hurricane Sandy a year ago.
The United Nations relief agency said on its website that as of Monday, 9.8 million people had been affected across the Philippines and more than 659,000 were displaced from their homes. But Mr. Ging and other top relief officials at the United Nations and elsewhere said they could not yet calibrate the full scope of the death and devastation because they simply did not have enough facts.
Charities with long experience in the Philippines said they were not waiting for guidance.
Reporting was contributed by Keith Bradsher from Tacloban, the Philippines; Floyd Whaley from Estancia, the Philippines; Austin Ramzy from Cebu, the Philippines; and Thom Shanker from Washington.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
U.N. Relief Official to Help Coordinate Aid Efforts
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/11/un-relief-official-to-help-coordinate.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
U.N. Relief Official to Help Coordinate Aid Efforts
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
U.N. Relief Official to Help Coordinate Aid Efforts
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar