Philippines homeless from typhoon hits 1.9 million

The number of people made homeless in the Philippines by a devastating typhoon rose to 1.9 million, up from 900,000, the United Nations' humanitarian agency said on Saturday, as international aid continues to arrive.

In Tacloban, at least 56,000 people face unsanitary conditions, according to the United Nations' migration agency.

Another Canadian military cargo plane left Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario Friday night with more soldiers and aid bound for the Philippines.

• Live updates from typhoon-ravaged Philippines
• The power and fury of tropical storms
• Before and after photos of Typhoon Haiyan's destruction
• How you can help the survivors
• CBC's David Common reports on conditions

About 200 members of the Canadian military's Disaster Assistance Response Team will be in the Philippines, where 55 Canadians are among the almost 1,200 people still missing.  In addition, three CH-146 Griffon choppers will be part of the Canadian mission. Two are set to leave Canada on Sunday from Ontario's CFB Trenton aboard a military transport
plane, said Defence Minister Rob Nicholson on Saturday.

A team of 10 soldiers from Japan's Self-Defence Force arrived Friday with medical supplies in the typhoon-hit city of Tacloban in hardest-hit Leyte Province. They will travel around the Philippine city and provide medical treatment to typhoon victims. Japan plans to send 1,180 troops to the Philippines, marking its largest oversea deployment for disaster relief.

Michael Messenger, the executive director of World Vision Canada, is on the ground in the region and says he's moved by the "devastation and heartbreak" he sees around him.

"There are people on the side of the road holding signs saying 'We need help, we need food,'" Messenger told CBC News on Saturday.  "Everywhere you  turn there are houses that are flattened, buildings that have crumpled."

Messenger says he's inspired by the stories of survival, "amazing stories of resilience" that he's hearing.

Thousands of people have sought shelter inside Tacloban's Astrodome, while others have decided to flee the city.

UN officials say the immediate priority for humanitarian agencies over the next few days is to transport and distribute food, tarpaulins, tents, clean drinking water and basic sanitation services to survivors.

The Humanitarian Coalition, which includes five relief organizations, has raised $2.3 million so far. Six days after the earthquake in Haiti, more than $3 million had been raised.

"I think the disaster is not quite on the same scale as Haiti, and we can see a difference in terms of fundraising results," said spokesperson Nicholas Moyer, adding that media coverage is also an issue.

"We must compete with other headlines. Whether that's Rob Ford today or some other controversy at another time."

The CBC's David Common is travelling with DART in the central Philippines and says their priority is to provide medical treatment to survivors.

"We understand from members of Canada's military here that there is a lot of dysentry and a lot of other gastrointestinal concerns, and we are seeing Ciprofloxacin, a common antibiotic, put into aid packages, delivered by the Red Cross and World Vision and others," Common said.

The aid groups are hoping to curb the spread of disease as people remain in crowded shelters. The long-delayed aid is flowing more than a week after Typhoon Haiyan swept over the country with tsunami-like waves and powerful winds.

Conditions are "absolutely horrific" in Tacloban, Canadian Julie Colgan with Global Medic, told CBC's Chris Brown.

"I've never seen anything anything like this before," she said.

Her team's key priority is getting people clean water, and on Friday it set up a water purification device on the outskirts of town that cleans 40 litres of water a minute.

"The water is very dirty with E. coli, just dirty sediment and sand, and people are bathing in it," Cogan said. "They're also drinking it, unfortunately, which is making them sick."

Residents of Tanauan, a fishing town about 15 kilometres southeast of Tacloban, said they only started receiving substantial aid on Friday.

Relief efforts are picking up, Common reported on Friday from the city of Cebu.

"By that I mean what we saw when we arrived at the Cebu airport today: A dozen or more cargo jets from Israel, the Netherlands, American military aircraft that were dropping off huge numbers of supplies, pallet loads," he said.

Common said it's clear that DART will be needed, particularly its helicopters, which arrive on Sunday.

"The issue right now is that there's an awful lot of aid pouring into airports," he said. "It's just tricky to get it into the hands of those who actually need it. The devastation here is enormous. The issue, of course, is trying to reach everyone. That hasn't happened a week after the typhoon."

The team's commanding officer on the ground said the Canadian effort was based at the airport in the community of Iloilo, and Common reported some DART members had moved north to the city of Roxas.

The Canadian team includes medical personnel, but military officials say the initial work will fall to engineers who can open roads, repair basic infrastructure and provide clean drinking water.

"We sent a mobile medical team to one of these evacuation centres in Pilar and they were able to see about 60 patients,' said DART's commanding officer, Lieut.-Col. Walter Taylor in an interview with CBC News on Saturday.

"Our scale and scope of our operation is increasing exponentially."

There are 118 DART personnel on the ground, including 54 who arrived Friday. There are 70 more en route and more will be sent in the coming days and weeks, the Department of National Defence said.

U.S. helicopters dropping water and food

In another sign that relief efforts were picking up, U.S. navy helicopters were flying from the aircraft carrier USS George Washington off the coast, dropping water and food to isolated communities.

The U.S. military is sending about 1,000 more troops, along with additional ships and aircraft. By Friday, there were 400 U.S. Marines in the country to assist typhoon victims.

On Saturday, the American military estimated that it had moved nearly 1,200 relief workers into Tacloban and airlifted almost 3,000 displaced people from affected areas so far.

The Philippine government — perhaps inevitably — has come under some criticism for its inability to get supplies out quicker.

"In a situation like this, nothing is fast enough," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said in the Leyte capital, Tacloban, most of which was destroyed by the storm. "The need is massive, the need is immediate, and you can't reach everyone."

Back in the town of Guiuan, some 155 kilometres east of Tacloban, there were other signs of life emerging from the debris. One man was selling skewers of meat, a couple of kiosks are open selling soda and soaps. Everywhere, freshly washed clothes lay in sun, drying.

While many have left this and other affected towns, some are choosing to stay and help.

Over 90 per cent of the infrastructure in Ormoc was destroyed. The port city now lacks even wire poles, according to a spokesman for the city. Full resumption of power supply is not expected to be realized in five to six months.

However, some key facilities will get power back next month.

"We hope to be able to restore at least partial electrical power to certain potions of city by Dec. 9," said a city spokesman.

Guiuan was one of the first towns to be hit by the storm. It suffered massive damage, but casualty figures were lower than in Tacloban and some other towns because it was largely spared from storm surges.

We cannot do anything, but will find a way to overcome this.- Luisa Bumanig, storm survivor

In Tacloban, there were also some signs a battered population was beginning to get back on its feet — even as trucks carrying corpses drove through its streets on the way to a mass grave.

The ornate tiled floor of a still-standing church was covered in mud as sunlight poured in through holes in the wind-peeled ceilings. Inside, people prayed while others swept dirt from the pews.

Residents hauled debris into piles in the streets and set them on fire. Others were at work making frames for temporary homes.

In one neighbourhood, dozens of people crowded around a mobile generator, where countless cords snaked across the dirt and into power strips. Residents plugged in mobile phones, tablets and flashlights, hoping for a precious gulp of electricity, even though cellphone coverage remained spotty.

John Lajara was already thinking about replacing his old residence, which once had a pool table and a sea breeze. Now it's a trash heap.

"We can't wait so I am building my house again," he said. "Back to zero."

John Bumanig and his wife were cleaning out their second-hand clothes shop, which was swamped by storm surges. They were laying out ladies bras in the sun, though they weren't hopeful anyone would buy them. Most of the stock had to be thrown out.

They were determined to stay in Tacloban, but faced an uncertain future.

"We cannot do anything, but will find a way to overcome this," said his wife, Luisa, holding back tears. "We have to strive hard because we still have children to take care of."

In Guiuan, a team of volunteers from elsewhere in the Philippines was clearing rubble from the road to the airport so that relief goods could get in quicker. Its leader, Peter Degrido, was trying to move an overturned passenger bus with a truck and steel cables.

"It's devastating to see this. But people are slowly recovering," he said. "They've already moved most of the bodies."