3,000 or 4,000? Confusion in relief and even in death

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Not only are the relief operations disorganized but there seems to be some confusion in the number of dead from Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international codename: Haiyan) as well.

In a press conference Friday, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) chief Eduardo Del Rosario said the death toll increased to 3,621 from 2,360 and denied the 4,460 cited by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in its report.

“That figure [from the UNOCHA] is not validated,” Major Rey Balido, NDRRMC spokesman, said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.

Del Rosario also told reporters that the authorized agency to provide details about the typhoon was NDRRMC.

The NDRRMC also said that a total of 9,073,804 people in nine regions were affected by “Yolanda”, considered the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall.

The recent Situation Report from UNOCHA showed that aside from the 4,460 deaths, 11.8 million people have been displaced across Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, MIMAROPA, Calabarzon, Bicol, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Caraga.

UNOCHA, as stated in their report, was working in coordination with the Philippine government’s NDRRMC, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

In Tacloban, the On-Site Operations Coordination Center (OSOCC or the Humanitarian Operations Center) near the Government’s Operation Center, as well as the Reception and Departure Center at the airport, is supporting the coordination of incoming aid.

“Yolanda” barreled through Visayas and Mindanao with maximum winds of over 300 kilometers per hour or 195 miles per hour.

Yolanda leveled homes and buildings, toppled trees and posts and swamped villages with storm surges of up to nine meters.

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