Desperation grows as people are without power and shelter for more than a week
The military must avoid swarming people during food drops
U.S. may rotate out USS George Washington once amphibious ships arrive
U.K.'s Royal Navy will arrive Sunday as many British nationals are still missing
(CNN) —
Desperation grew among Filipinos who’ve been without electricity or shelter for more than a week since Super Typhoon Haiyan reduced homes to splinters, prompting the military to alter rescue maneuvers, an official said Saturday.
“People swarm the helicopters, so we land the helicopters a little bit farther from the population areas,” said Maj. Gen. Romer Poquiz of the Philippine Air Force. “So before the people come in, we would take off, go and drop in other places, drop and then go, drop, go, drop, go, at various places.”
Several countries, including the U.S. military, continued to assist Philippine authorities in a massive relief effort of delivering food and water to the devastated swaths of the archipelago. The central government is being criticized for a slow and disorganized response to what all agree is a catastrophic disaster.
A mother carries her baby through the debris of destroyed houses in Tacloban, Leyte province, Philippines on Wednesday, November 27, 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, has devastated parts of the Philippines and killed thousands of people.
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NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
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A child stands on a wooden cart among destroyed houses in Tacloban on Tuesday, November 26.
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Children salvage reusable items in a waterfront community in Tacloban, Philippines, on November 23.
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A boy peers out of a damaged structure near the shoreline on November 23, 2013 in Tacloban, Philippines.
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A young boy cleans salvaged toys near a ship that was washed ashore by Super Typhoon Haiyan in this Tacloban, Philippines, on November 23, 2013.
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Children walk through debris near the shoreline where several tankers ran aground on November 23, in Leyte, Philippines.
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A typhoon survivor kisses her baby as she waits to board her evacuation flight at the airport in Tacloban on Friday, November 22.
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Emergency nurse Vanesa Carbajal, who is part of the medical team for the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development, positions a newborn for treatment for respiratory problems at the Eastern Visayas Medical Center in Tacloban on November 22. Foreign aid has poured into the Philippines since the super typhoon hit.
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ROLEX DELA PENA/epa/LANDOV
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A young Filipino takes a shower on the side of a road in Tacloban, on Thursday, November 21.
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Children blow bubbles in the destroyed market of Tacloban, Philippines, on Wednesday, November 20.
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Premature babies sleep November 20 at the Eastern Visayas Medical Center in Tacloban.
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A child sleeps in a hallway outside the overcrowded children's and maternity ward at the Eastern Visayas Medical Center on November 20.
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A family rests Tuesday, November 19, in the hull of a tanker run aground during Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban.
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A boy sits on a car amid the debris in Leyte, Philippines, on Monday, November 18.
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Survivors wait for an evacuation flight at the Tacloban airport on Sunday, November 17.
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A woman reaches out to her 1-day-old granddaughter at a Tacloban hospital on November 17.
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Young girls stare at the full moon outside a makeshift shelter in Tacloban on Saturday, November 16.
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RITCHIE B. TONGO/epa/LANDOV
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Two Filipino children cry as their mother, using a refrigerator as a boat, tries to move the family to a neighboring island near Tacloban on November 16. Aid workers would not let the woman and her children travel this way.
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Onur Coban/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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A woman comforts her child while sitting in line at the Tacloban airport on November 16.
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ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images
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A young girl walks amid ruins of houses in a neighborhood badly affected by the typhoon in Guiuan, Philippines, on Friday, November 15.
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Choir boys carry hymnals November 15 during a Mass for typhoon victims at Westminster Cathedral in London.
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CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman and her newborn baby lie on the floor of a Tacloban hospital on November 15.
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Children gather at the Tacloban airport on November 15. Many survivors have converged on the city's airport to wait for flights out.
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MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman bathes a baby Thursday, November 14, at a church building where a number of survivors are taking shelter in Tacloban.
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A boy rides his bike past a coffin and other scenes of destruction Wednesday, November 13, in Tacloban.
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Children carry relief goods as they pass by damaged houses in Tacloban on November 13.
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Children in Tacloban wait for social workers November 13.
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Tacloban residents ask for water while waiting to get a free pass to board a U.S. plane Tuesday, November 12.
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Survivors seek medical attention at a makeshift hospital inside an airport compound November 13 in Tacloban.
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Residents take shelter in a church November 13 in Tacloban.
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A woman holding a baby runs during a downpour Tuesday, November 12, in Tacloban.
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A boy and a girl salvage materials November 12 in Leyte, Philippines. Many in the region have nothing left.
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Typhoon survivors line up November 12 in hopes of boarding a military transport plane out of Tacloban.
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A woman weeps as she carries a child to a military aircraft in Leyte on November 12.
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Philippine military personnel try to prioritize children and women first as people wait for evacuation flights November 12 in Tacloban.
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A woman carrying a child cries November 12 as survivors wait to board an aircraft in Tacloban.
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Survivors walk in Tacloban on November 12.
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A woman cries November 12 as other survivors wait to evacuate Tacloban.
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A Philippine air force officer hands out orange slices to typhoon survivors as they line up to board a military transport plane November 12 in Tacloban.
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Children stand on rubble in the storm-ravaged town of Hernani, Philippines, on Monday, November 11.
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A young girl lays in bed awaiting treatment in a Tacloban hospital on November 15, in Leyte, Philippines.
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Newborn Bea Joy rests November 11 after her mother gave birth to her at the airport in Tacloban.
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A boy in Tacloban walks near a container appealing for help.
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Soldiers let a woman and her child through a fence to get food November 11 outside the Tacloban airport.
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A woman carries a child through a flooded street in Yong'an, China, on November 11. China and Vietnam were also hit hard by the storm.
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Zhang Ailin/XINHUA/Landov
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Residents of Anibong, Philippines, rest November 11 near a ship propeller that washed ashore during the storm.
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NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
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Survivors walk through the streets of Tacloban as a military plane flies overhead on November 11.
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A young survivor rests on a pedicab November 11 in Tacloban.
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Children peek out from their makeshift shelter in Tacloban on Sunday, November 10.
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A young Tacloban resident walks inside a damaged home on November 10.
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Children carry relief goods past damaged homes in Tacloban on November 10.
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Two young boys look at the devastation in Tacloban on November 10.
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A Vietnamese soldier assists a girl Saturday, November 9, as villagers are moved in the central province of Quang Nam.
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Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
The U.S. military may rotate out the aircraft carrier group with the USS George Washington once amphibious ships arrive, a senior U.S. military official told CNN. Relief efforts were also showing a lot of field hospital capability, the official said.
Meanwhile, military planes and helicopters delivered foodstuffs, and some people carried all that remained of their possessions and were lucky enough to be ferried to refuge in Cebu.
U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Royal Navy’s HMS Daring was scheduled to arrive Sunday morning and assist the relief efforts. An disclosed number of British nationals remain unaccounted for, Hague said.
The toll remains overwhelming with thousands dead, about 3 million people displaced, vast communities flattened and looting and violence erupting in Tacloban, a major city that’s the ground zero in the super typhoon strike.
Crews continued to collect bodies from streets, with the death toll increased Sunday to 3,681, according to the official death count.
The number of injured stood at 12,544, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported. At least 1,186 were missing.
The death toll could still climb higher, with an additional 1,000 cadaver bags sent to provinces, the disaster council announced as search-and-rescue operations continued in Tacloban City.
The national disaster council’s executive director, Eduardo Del Rosario, said the bags would be placed on standby, given that most of the bodies had already been buried in mass graves or claimed by relatives.
Cadaver bags are cleaned before being reused, he said.
The Philippines News Association reported Friday that five-person teams that include a forensic expert and photographer would begin using a “quick system” for the bodies on Saturday.
“Under the system, the public will not be allowed to view the identification process, but relatives will be asked to participate in the final identification of corpses at an appointed time,” it reported, citing the Department of Health.
Each team will be required to handle 40 corpses per day, it said.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona said that photos will be taken, identifying marks will be documented and belongings and tissue samples for possible use in DNA testing will be collected, when practical.
The arrival in recent days of hundreds of aid workers and military troops has seen a floodgate of humanitarian aid – food, water and medical supplies – open, albeit sporadically, in the hard hit provinces.
A senior U.S. military official said approximately 9,000 U.S. troops are supporting the operation in the Philippines. U.S. military assets have delivered approximately 623,000 pounds of relief supplies.
Under a hot sun, refugees held umbrellas as they waited in line for provisions. Some wore masks apparently as protection from the rot and decay of their obliterated communities.
The nation’s disaster agency said between 9 million and 13 million people were affected in 44 provinces, 536 municipalities and 55 cities.
Jethro Mullen reported from Tacloban. Ben Brumfield reported in Atlanta and Michael Martinez reported and wrote in Los Angeles. CNN’s Barbara Starr, Nana Karikari-apau and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.
