Typhoon Haiyan: Church services held in
typhoon-shattered city
Published on Nov 17, 2013
10:40 AM
Residents attend Sunday mass at the 400-year-old Immaculate conception church destroyed by super Typhoon Haiyan in
Guiuan town, Eastern Samar province, central Philippines on Nov 17, 2013, Guiuan was the first town to be destroyed by
super Typhoon Haiyan, killing nearly one hundred residents. -- PHOTO: AFP
TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) - Hours after the storm hit the Philippines, Father Amadero Alvero was on
the streets, sprinkling holy water over the dead and praying for them. His first, a woman, lay face down
amid piles of rubble just steps from his half-destroyed, filthy Santo Nino church.
By late afternoon, the 44-year-priest had blessed about 50 corpses in the remains of this shattered city.
He then returned to church and led Mass.
"Despite what happened, we still believe in God," he said. "The church may have been destroyed, but our
faith is intact, as believers, as a people of God, our faith has not been destroyed."
On Sunday, Alvero lead a service for about 500 people in the church in Tacloban.
Sun shone for the first service, but by the second, rain was falling through a hole in the roof.
It was one of scores of churches across the region holding services that were attended by thousands, many
homeless and grieving. More than 80 percent of the 90 million people in the Philippines are Roman
Catholic, the largest in Asia by far and a legacy of its history of Spanish colonial rule.
Some came to give thanks for surviving. Others to pray for the souls of the departed.
"Coming to Mass gives people hope that things will eventually get better," said Marino Caintic.
Tacloban, a city of 220,000 people, was largely leveled by the Nov 8 typhoon.
Alvero carried on his work until the fifth day, blessing bodies wherever they lay - in smashed cars or
floating in water. He stopped when the smell became too much for him, though he said other priests have
continued.
Asked why would God allow a storm so powerful and so deadly to obliterate the region, claiming the lives
of so many innocents and causing immense suffering, Alvero used an argument familiar to followers of the
Abrahamic faiths.
"We are being tested by God, to see how strong our faith is, to see if our faith is true," he said. "This is a
test of God. He wants to know that we have faith in him in good times, as well as in bad."
Santo Nino and other churches have also been helping care for those who survived.
About 30 families are living in the church, and there are boxes of water and canned goods and food piled
up on the promises. The sea water flooded much of the first floor of the compound, but receded.
The Nov 8 typhoon killed more than 3,500 people and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of
homes in what was already a poor region. A major international relief effort, spearheaded by the US
military, is underway to assist survivors.
Typhoon Haiyan: Water a pressing concern
for typhoon survivors
Published on Nov 17, 2013
10:48 AM

While aid agencies work to provide a steady supply of water, survivors have resorted to scooping from streams, catching
rainwater in buckets and smashing open pipes to obtain what is left from disabled pumping stations. -- PHOTO: AP
TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) - Since the typhoon hit, Danny Estember has been hiking three hours
round-trip into the mountains each day to obtain what he can only hope is clean water for his five
daughters and two sons.
The exhausting journey is necessary because safe water is desperately scarce in this storm-ravaged portion
of the Philippines. Without it, people struggling to rebuild and even survive risk catching intestinal and
other diseases that can spread if they're unable to wash properly.
While aid agencies work to provide a steady supply, survivors have resorted to scooping from streams,
catching rainwater in buckets and smashing open pipes to obtain what is left from disabled pumping
stations. With at least 600,000 people homeless, the demand is massive.
"I'm thirsty and hungry. I'm worried - no food, no house, no water, no money," said Estember, a 50-yearold ambulance driver.
Thousands of other people who sought shelter under the solid roof of the Tacloban City Astrodome also
must improvise, taking water from wherever they can - a broken water pipe or a crumpled tarp. The water
is salty and foul tasting but it is all many have had for days.
The US Institute of Medicine defines an adequate daily intake of fluids as roughly 3 litres (100 ounces) for
men and about 2.2 litres (75 ounces) for women. Given the shortages and hot climate, it's certain that most
in the disaster zone aren't getting anything like those amounts, leaving them prone to energy-sapping
dehydration.
Providing clean, safe drinking water is key to preventing the toll of dead and injured from rising in the
weeks after a major natural disaster. Not only do survivors need to stay hydrated, they also need to be
protected from waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
Haiti's devastating January 2010 earthquake was followed by a cholera outbreak in October 2011 that
health officials say has killed more than 8,000 people and sickened nearly 600,000. The two events were
not linked. Some studies have shown that cholera may have been introduced in Haiti by UN troops from
Nepal, where the disease is endemic.
Washing regularly, using latrines and boiling drinking water are the best ways to avoid contracting
diarrhea and other ailments that could burden already stressed health services.
It took several days for aid groups to bring large quantities of water to Tacloban, the eastern Philippine city
where the typhoon wreaked its worst destruction. By Friday, tankers were arriving. Philippine Red Cross
workers sluiced water into enormous plastic bladders attached to faucets from which people fill jerry cans,
buckets, bottles and whatever other containers they might have.
"I'm thirsty," said Lydia Advincula, 54, who for the last few days had been placing buckets out doors to
catch some of the torrential downpours that have added to the misery of homeless storm survivors.
Water provisioning should get a big boost with the recent arrival of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS
George Washington, a virtual floating city with a distillation plant that can produce 1.5 million litres
(400,000 gallons) of fresh water per day - enough to supply 2,000 homes, according to the ship's website.
Britain also is sending an aircraft carrier, the HMS Illustrious, with seven helicopters and facilities to
produce fresh water, Britain's Ministry of Defense said. It said the ship is expected to reach the area about
Nov 25.
Filtration systems are now operating in Tacloban, the center of the relief effort, and two other towns in
Leyte province, the hardest-hit area. Helicopters are dropping bottled water along with other relief supplies
to more isolated areas.
Other more high-tech water purification solutions are also available, such as water purification bottles
developed since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated parts of Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri
Lanka. Those contain systems that filter out parasites, bacteria and other dangerous substances from
virtually any water source, making it safe to drink and alleviating the high cost and logistical difficulties
that shipping in bottled water entails.
Longer-term water solutions will come once the crucial issues of shelter and security are settled and will
likely have to wait several months, said John Saunders, of the US-based International Association of
Emergency Managers. Those water systems are far more complex, requiring expensive, specialised
equipment and training for operators, he said.
"I can bring in a US$300,000 (S$373,700) water system that provides thousands of litres per day of
drinking water, but who pays for the system and how is it maintained and distribution managed?" Saunders
said.
Long-term solutions are a distant concern for Jaime Llanera, 44, as he stands in a shelter he and his family
have fashioned out of broken plywood and a tarpaulin.
A single 500-millilitre (12-ounce) bottle of mineral water delivered by the military three days earlier is all
that's available for his parents, sister, brother-in-law and a friend. To stretch their supply, they've been
collecting rainwater in buckets and any other containers they can find and boiling it. They're also using
rainwater to clean: His mother dunks clothing into a bucket of rainwater and tries to scrub out the filth.
The family plans to wait one more week. If help hasn't come by then, they'll try to find a way out of
Tacloban so they can stay with relatives elsewhere. "We have no house. We have no home. But we're still
intact," Llanera said.
28 die in Vietnam floods, 9 missing
Published on Nov 17, 2013
1:08 PM

This picture taken on November 16, 2013 shows people standing on a damaged bridge in the flood-hit central province of
Binh Dinh. Devastating floods have killed at least 34 people and left 11 others missing in central Vietnam, the local
authorities said on November 17, describing the deluge as the worst for over a decade. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP
HANOI (REUTERS) - Flooding in Vietnam has killed at least 28 people since Friday, with nine others
missing and nearly 80,000 displaced, state media and government reports said, after a tropical depression
dumped heavy rains across central regions of the country.
In Quang Ngai province, where nine were killed and four people are missing, flood waters rose above a
previous peak measured in 1999, submerging many houses, the official Thanh Nien (Young People)
newspaper reported on Sunday.
Flood waters rose quickly after 15 hydro power plants in the central region opened their sluice gates to
release water in reservoir protection, the newspaper reported.
Around 100,000 houses were submerged and nearly 80,000 people have been evacuated, the governmentrun committee on floods and storm protection said in a report. Roads have been closed due to floods and
some national train services cancelled.
The central region, incorporating the Central Highlands coffee belt, often suffers from floods and storms
between July and October.
Rain since Friday disrupted the coffee harvest and bean drying in central highland provinces, thus delaying
the bean flow to sea ports. Vietnam is the world's top robusta producer, accounting for around 17 percent
of the world's output.
More rain was forecast in the coffee-growing region on Sunday, state forecasters said.
Typhoon Haiyan: China ready to send rescue
teams to Philippines
Published on Nov 17, 2013
1:10 PM
A rescue worker clears the debris near an S.O.S sign after the Super typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city in central
Philippines, Nov 14, 2013. China says it is ready to send rescue and medical teams to the Philippines, one week after a
devastating typhoon struck the island nation. -- FILE PHOTO: REUTERS
BEIJING (AP) - China says it is ready to send rescue and medical teams to the Philippines, one week after
a devastating typhoon struck the island nation.
The belated offer published in a statement on the Foreign Ministry's website on Sunday follows an
extremely modest pledge of less than US$2 million (S$2.49 million) in disaster assistance. The small
offering has been attributed to spite over a festering dispute with Manila over South China Sea islands
claimed by both sides.
In the statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted as saying that China was monitoring
conditions in the Philippines and the emergency teams would depart for the hardest hit areas "should
conditions permit".
There was no immediate indication whether the aid teams were preparing to depart or whether the
Philippine government had accepted the Chinese offer.
Typhoon Haiyan: Long road ahead for
typhoon-hit Philippine businesses
Published on Nov 17, 2013
1:19 PM
An aerial photo shows an area devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban in the province of Leyte on Nov 16, 2013.
Typhoon Haiyan wiped out livelihoods as well as homes, leaving small traders and shopowners facing a long and perilous
road back to solvency. -- PHOTO: AFP
TANAUAN, Philippines (AFP) - A monster typhoon that laid waste to the central Philippines wiped out
livelihoods as well as homes, leaving small traders and shopowners facing a long and perilous road back to
solvency.
In the immediate aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms ever to make
landfall - future planning had to be sacrificed for the immediate task of survival in a world without food
and water.
For trader Aleda Afable, the choice was to butcher the only remaining cow from a herd swept away in the
typhoon-triggered storm surge, or keep the animal that represented the last shred of her investment.
In the end, the dire situation made the decision for her.
"This place probably won't be rebuilt in months, or even a year," she said, looking over what little is left of
the coastal township of Tanauan on the island of Leyte.
"With relief supplies trickling in slowly, I was forced to butcher the cow," she sobbed, as two men cleaned
the hide and tail - all that was left after sharing the meat with her neighbours who had eaten next to nothing
for days.
"This disaster is a great equaliser. There is no more rich and poor, and those who have anything left must
be able to share them," said the mother of two.
The United Nations said early assessments indicated that 5.1 million workers, in 36 provinces, had been
affected by the loss of livelihoods.
Afable's family had been relatively well-off and their three-storey home was one of the few still standing in
Tanauan after Super Typhoon Haiyan powered through on November 8.
The quiet township was once a bustling community featuring ancestral homes and churches.
Shops that lined the main avenue were reduced to splinters, with debris only beginning to be cleared up
eight days after the destruction.
At the main junction leading to the town proper a sign in broken English pleads: "Help us, no food's
typhoon victim."
On Saturday, emergency crews fished the bloated remains of a woman from the river that bisects the town,
while in the square in front of a partially destroyed Catholic church, several bodies in black body bags
remained to be collected.
A pawnshop promising low-interest loans still had its sign intact, while families who had lost their homes
had taken over a commercial building after the tenants evacuated.
Outside a hardware store that has been damaged but is still standing, 15-year-old Aivee Joy Rosette waited
with her cousins for her mother who had gone out to search for something to eat.
"My mother said we'll try to reopen the shop, but I told her I want to leave this place. I'm still afraid and
there is no one left anyway," she said.
On the neighbouring island of Samar, which was spared the worst of the storm surge but battered by the
typhoon's 315-kilometre per hour winds, there are signs of emerging economic activity.
In Guiuan town, a handful of intrepid traders had laid out makeshift stalls on the fringes of the main
market square in front of the church.
Some sold freshly caught fish, while other offered eggs, the odd live chicken and some bananas.
And on the road leading to an old military airstrip outside Guiuan, where the US military was flying in
relief supplies, people had set up similar small stores laying out wares that appeared to have been salvaged
from the wreckage, including muddied Coke bottles, sachets of soap powder and cooking oil.
The congressman for Eastern Samar province, Ben Evardone, said 80 percent of its coconut trees - the base
of the region's economy - had been destroyed and it would take a minimum of three to five years for new
plantings to bear fruit.
In Tacloban City, which bore the brunt of the five-metre storm surge, Kenneth Uy, owner of the 50-room
Asia Star Hotel, was open for business.
"Many businessmen have left. But I'll stay. I am from here and this is my city. If we don't help ourselves,
who will?," said Uy.
Having already partially restored power and water in his hotel, Uy had found customers willing to pay the
inflated room rate of US$100 (S$124) a night.
As well as members of the police special action force flown in to help secure law and order in city,
international aid agency staff and media crews made up the guests.
"I hope when they come back next time, it is not for work, but for pleasure," Uy said.
Typhoon Haiyan: 3-day-old baby girl dies in
storm-wrecked hospital
Published on Nov 17, 2013
2:59 PM
Sick and premature babies lie in cribs on the alter of a Catholic chapel inside the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center
in Tacloban, on Saturday, Nov 16, 2013. -- PHOTO: AP
TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) - All through her very short life, the parents had squeezed oxygen into her
tiny body with a hand-held pump to keep her alive.
In the end, their prayers and whatever little medical care doctors could muster in the typhoon-ravaged
hospital were not enough. Althea Mustacia, aged three days, died on Saturday.
She was born on Nov 13, five days after Typhoon Haiyan annihilated a vast swath of the Philippines,
killing thousands. The storm's aftermath is still claiming victims, and Althea was among the latest.
She was born at the government-run Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, suffering from a condition
called newborn asphyxia, a failure to start regular breathing within a minute of birth. The consequences are
possible brain damage or death if not corrected quickly.
According to the World Health Organization, newborn asphyxia is one of the leading causes of newborn
deaths in developing countries, accounting for about 20 percent of the infant mortality rate. In the United
States, it is the 10th leading cause of infant mortality.
Althea could have been saved had the hospital's ventilators had been working. But power lines were down
in the entire region. There was no electricity and none of the equipment in the hospital - flooded and
wrecked - worked. Not the ventilators, not the incubators, not the suction pumps to feed her oxygen.
Instead, her parents had to push life into her mouth with a hand-held pump connected to an oxygen tank.
They took turns to do this continuously since she came into this world without stopping. With her lungs
barely functioning, the only sign of life in the infant was a heartbeat.
But Althea's fragile body could not cope. Even the heartbeat stopped on Saturday evening, a few hours
after an Associated Press team visited the hospital.
The attending physician, Dr Leslie Rosario, told the AP that her parents wrapped her body in a small
blanket and left in tears.
She said the storm had not been a factor in the baby's problems, noting that insufficient prenatal care most
likely complicated the pregnancy for the 18-year-old mother. The baby was not born premature.
Althea was one of the 24 babies at the hospital's neo-natal ward, which had to be shifted from the ground
floor to a chapel one story above because everything on the bottom floor had been ruined by the storm.
The chapel's 28 pews are now occupied by some mothers, resting with IV drips in their arms.
Until Saturday, the makeshift ward in the chapel had no light except candles. One small fluorescent bulb
attached to a diesel generator was hung Saturday in the middle of the room where a few packs of diapers
sat on the altar below a picture of Jesus.
Death toll from Vietnam floods rises to 34:
Official
Published on Nov 17, 2013
3:20 PM
People looking at a flooded road in the central province of Quang Ngai, on Saturday, Nov 16, 2013. Devastating floods have
killed at least 34 people and left 11 others missing in central Vietnam, local authorities said on Sunday, describing the deluge
as the worst for over a decade. -- PHOTO: AFP
HANOI (AFP) - Devastating floods have killed at least 34 people and left 11 others missing in central
Vietnam, local authorities said on Sunday, describing the deluge as the worst for over a decade.
Television footage on Sunday showed inundated houses and streets in the town of Hoi An and the former
imperial City of Hue, both classed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, where hundreds of tourists have
been evacuated over recent days.
At least 34 people have been killed over several days of flooding which were the most destructive since
1999, a regional official told AFP.
"Eleven other people are missing. More than 100,000 houses have been flooded and transport by road, air
and rail has been severely affected across the region," said Nguyen Quang Trung, an official in the coastal
city of Danang, adding several central provinces had been hit.
"Rain continued to fall on Sunday morning in the coastal provinces of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh - where
at least 20 people (of the 34) were killed," Trung said, adding damage is initially estimated at around $65
million.
Local authorities on Saturday said around 20,000 people were evacuated after at least six deaths during the
floods, caused by heavy rain from a new tropical depression in the South China Sea.
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated last weekend before the arrival of Typhoon Haiyan
which wreaked devastation on the Philippines, before tearing across the South China Sea.
But the communist nation was spared the worst of the typhoon's power as it weakened before striking
Vietnam's coast.
Typhoon Haiyan: Villagers mob US aid
choppers as Philippine relief effort spreads
Published on Nov 17, 2013
4:34 PM
An US Marines helicopter is loaded with goods from the US relief organisation US Aid to be distributed to survivors of
Super Typhoon Haiyan at Tacloban airport, Nov 17, 2013. Mobbed by hungry villagers, US military helicopters dropped
desperately needed aid into remote areas of the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines, as survivors of the disaster flocked to
ruined churches on Sunday to pray for their uncertain future. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
CABUNGAAN, Philippines (REUTERS) - Mobbed by hungry villagers, US military helicopters dropped
desperately needed aid into remote areas of the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines, as survivors of the
disaster flocked to ruined churches on Sunday to pray for their uncertain future.
The Philippines is facing up to an enormous rebuilding task from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least
3,681 people and left 1,186 missing, with many isolated communities yet to receive significant aid despite
a massive international relief effort.
Philippine authorities and international aid agencies face a mounting humanitarian crisis, with the number
of people displaced by the catastrophe estimated at 4 million, up from 900,000 late last week.
President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster and criticised by some for the
sometimes chaotic response, visited affected areas on Sunday. Not for the first time, he sought to deflect
blame for the problems onto local authorities whose preparations he said had fallen short.
In Guiuan, a hard-hit coastal town in eastern Samar province, he praised the city mayor for conducting a
proper evacuation that had limited deaths to less than 100, saying that was a contrast to other towns.
"In other places, I prefer not to talk about it. As your president, I am not allowed to get angry even if I am
already upset. I'll just suffer through it with an acidic stomach."
While aid packages have begun to reach more remote areas, much of it carried by helicopters brought by
the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, the United Nations said people were still going hungry in
some mountainous provinces. It said information about several provinces in the west of the Visayas region
remained "limited", with 60 percent of people in towns in the northeast part of Capiz province needing
food support.
"I remain concerned about the health and well-being of the millions of men, women and children who are
still in desperate need," UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in a statement.
In Cabungaan, a village in the interior of Leyte province's Tanauan district - where as many as 1,200 died the arrival of a US Seahawk helicopter on Sunday was the first outside help since Haiyan made landfall.
With children in the lead, scores of villagers ran from jury-rigged shanties to greet the helicopter as it
settled in a flattened patch of grass. Locals jostled for a view, beaming and yelling "Thank you! Thank
you!" as two crew members rushed out aid marked "from the American people."
For the past week, the village's 200-plus residents had been living on one meal a day of "dried fish,
sometimes coconuts, not enough rice," said Richel Maballo, 19.
Too far from the shore to be hit by the surge of water that devastated the regional capital Tacloban city, the
village suffered no deaths.
Back in the air, a member of the aircraft's crew, Jeremy Smith, scribbled in a notebook: "That LZ (landing
zone) was tame compared to others where the aircrafts have been mobbed."
The government estimated damage to infrastructure and agriculture at about 10 billion pesos (S$285
million), the bulk of it in the farming sector. The United Nations warned that economic and human costs
could rise if aid did not reach farmers in rice-growing regions in time for the next planting season in
December and January.
It also said that fishing, another crucial food source, had been placed in jeopardy by the storm.
"The destruction of boats, fishing gear, fish ponds and related equipment left many families with no means
of livelihood and decreased protein intake," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
said.
In Tacloban, church-goers in the deeply religious Roman Catholic-majority country knelt in prayer in the
shells of ruined churches.
At Santo Niño Church near the waterfront, Rosario Capidos, 55, sat crying in one row, hugging her nineyear-old grandson.
Capidos had been sheltering at home with nine other members of her family when Haiyan struck on Nov. 8.
As the waters rose, she floated her three grandchildren on a slab of styrofoam through a road flooded with
debris and shipping containers to a nearby Chinese temple. Her family survived.
"That's why I'm crying," she said. "I thank God I was given a second chance to live."
Typhoon Haiyan: Philippine President
Aquino to camp out in Tacloban
Published on Nov 17, 2013
8:18 PM
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III (centre) visits the navy port where some relief supplies arrive by boat in Tacloban,
on Sunday, Nov 17, 2013. Mr Benigno said on Sunday that he will stay in typhoon-battered Leyte province until he sees
more progress in the aid effort, following complaints from survivors that they have yet to receive proper help. -- PHOTO:
AFP
TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said on Sunday that he will stay
in typhoon-battered Leyte province until he sees more progress in the aid effort, following complaints from
survivors that they have yet to receive proper help.
Mr Aquino is expected to set up camp in Tacloban, the capital of hardest-hit Leyte province, but it is not
clear where he will find suitable accommodation amid the ruins. Virtually every building in the city was
damaged or destroyed by the Nov 8 Typhoon Haiyan, which killed 3,974 people, according to the latest
official count released on Sunday. The storm left about 1,200 people missing.
Electricity is available only in small pockets through diesel generators. There is no running water, and
people must manage with water supplied by tankers. Many don't even have that.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Tacloban, Mr Aquino said that while there has been some progress
in the aid effort, it is not enough. A massive effort by the international community, which has donated aid
and cash worth more than US$248 million (S$309 million), is beginning to show improvements on the
ground. "We really want to ease the burden of everybody as soon as possible. As long as I don't see any
more improvements, we'll stay here," Mr Aquino said, referring to his official team.
Presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said Mr Aquino wanted to ensure that the distribution of relief
goods goes on smoothly and power is restored soon in this city of 220,000 people.
This is not the first time Mr Aquino has taken a hands-on approach to a crisis. When Muslim rebels
occupied fishing villages outside Zamboanga in the south in September, he set up a camp in the regional
military headquarters in the city to oversee the offensive against the insurgents. The move won him
widespread praise.
Last month, the 53-year-old bachelor President slept overnight in an army tent to reassure jittery residents
of a central town that was devastated by a magnitude-7.3 earthquake.
Earlier in the day, thousands of Filipinos, many homeless and grieving, flocked to dozens of churches
across the region for their first Sunday Mass since the typhoon. More than 80 per cent of the 90 million
people in the Philippines are Roman Catholic, a legacy of its history of Spanish colonial rule.
Some came to give thanks for surviving. Others came to pray for the souls of the departed.
"Coming to Mass gives people hope that things will eventually get better," said Mr Marino Caintic.
One such service was held by the Reverend Amadero Alvero at his half-destroyed Santo Nino church, a
landmark of Tacloban.
"Despite what happened, we still believe in God," he said. "The church may have been destroyed, but our
faith is intact, as believers, as a people of God, our faith has not been destroyed."
Sun shone for the first service, but by the second, rain was falling through a gaping hole crisscrossed by
wooden beams in the roof of the downtown church and landmark. Its windows were blown out, and winds
snapped at a silver cross on top of its steeple, which hangs upside down.
"We are being tested by God, to see how strong our faith is, to see if our faith is true," he said. "He wants
to know that we have faith in him in good times, as well as in bad."
Santo Nino and other churches have also been helping care for those who survived.
About 30 families are living in the church, and there are boxes of water and canned goods and food piled
up on the promises. The seawater flooded much of the first floor of the compound.
Filipinos elsewhere in Asia also remembered their homeland in their prayers on Sunday.
In Hong Kong, home to 133,000 Filipinos, volunteers outside one church were collecting food, medicine,
blankets and clothing to send to the affected region. Most of Filipinos working in the city are low-paid
domestic workers.
"We can't really afford to give much money, but we can help them by praying," said Ms Jovie Tamayo, 32,
who is from central Iloilo province. The roof of her family's house was ripped off in the storm, but her
family members were uninjured.
Ms Chelly Ogania said she had been unable to contact her mother and brothers on Samar Island, where the
storm made landfall, though she had heard from friends that the village was safe.
"We pray that they are really safe, we pray always," said the 35-year-old. "That's all the things I can do,
just pray and trust the Lord, because I'm very far from them. No communications, just praying, praying."
Typhoon Haiyan: Insured losses may be
$373m to $872m
Published on Nov 18, 2013
6:36 AM
A general view of the devastation in Guiuan town, Eastern Samar province, central Philippines on Nov 17, 2013, a week
after Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the town. Typhoon Haiyan could inflict between US$6.5 billion (S$8.1 billion) and
US$14.5 billion in total damages, but because insurance penetration in the Philippines in low, insured losses will likely only
range between US$300 million and US$700 million, according to risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide. -- PHOTO: AFP
(REUTERS) - Typhoon Haiyan could inflict between US$6.5 billion (S$8.1 billion) and US$14.5 billion in
total damages, but because insurance penetration in the Philippines in low, insured losses will likely only
range between US$300 million and US$700 million, according to risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide.
The Philippines is facing an enormous rebuilding task from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 3,681
people.
Some 1,186 are still missing and many isolated communities have yet to receive significant aid despite a
massive international relief effort.
AIR Worldwide published a report on Sunday outlining the billions of dollars in damages that have
affected residential, commercial and agricultural properties. The report noted that many residential and
commercial buildings were destroyed, including the airport in Tacloban.
The firm said it was difficult to provide an accurate estimate of the storm's exact strength because
measurement devices were destroyed.
Powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes
far south Atlantic near Antarctica
Published on Nov 17, 2013
6:36 PM

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A powerful 7.8-magnitude undersea earthquake struck in the Scotia Sea, a
remote region in the far south Atlantic near Antarctica, United States earthquake monitors reported Sunday.
The quake struck at 9.04am GMT in the ocean some 893km south-west of Grytviken, South Georgia, and
1,140km south-east of Ushuaia, Argentina, said the US Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes
worldwide.
Italy's Mount Etna volcano erupts, lighting
up sky over Sicily
Published on Nov 17, 2013
8:57 PM
Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has erupted again, lighting up the sky over much of eastern Sicily and shooting
up a towering column of ash. -- PHOTO: AP
ROME (AP) - Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has erupted again, lighting up the sky over much
of eastern Sicily and shooting up a towering column of ash.
The eruption, which began late on Saturday and tapered off on Sunday morning, didn't endanger any of
villages dotting the mountain's slopes, and no evacuation was ordered.
The airport in nearby Catania said two air space sectors above the volcano were closed to flights, but that
the airport itself was operating normally, including take-offs and departures.
Etna erupts occasionally. Its last major eruption occurred in 1992.