USS George Washington Super Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Help In Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts in Philippines

U.S. carrier starts Philippine storm relief; death toll jumps

Members of South Korea Disaster Relief Team sit in a South Korean Air Force C-130 transport plane to depart for typhoon affected areas in the Philippines at Seoul military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul November 15, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier started unloading food and water in the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines, while the United Nations, citing government figures, put the latest death toll at 4,460 - almost double the last official number given.

President Benigno Aquino has faced mounting pressure to speed up the distribution of supplies and stoked debate over the extent of casualties from Typhoon Haiyan.

Earlier this week, he said estimates of 10,000 dead by local officials were overstated and caused by "emotional trauma". He had said the toll was closer to 2,000 or 2,500, adding it could rise. His comments have drawn scepticism from some aid workers.

"As of 13 November, the government reported that 4,460 people have died," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its daily situation report, issued out of Manila and dated Thursday.

Official confirmed deaths stood at 2,357 on Thursday. It was unclear on Friday, where it was still very early in Manila, if the government publicly updated that number overnight.

Survivors have grown increasingly desperate and angry over the pace of aid distribution, which has been hindered by paralysed local governments, widespread looting, a lack of fuel and debris-choked roads.

The dead are still being buried one week after the storm and a tsunami-like wall of seawater slammed into coastal areas. Many corpses remain uncovered on roadsides or under splintered homes in the worst-hit city of Tacloban.

Foreign aid officials have called the disaster unprecedented for the Philippines.

"There is utter devastation. People are desperate for food, water, shelter, supplies and information about their loved ones," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters on Thursday during a visit to Latvia.

"We are doing everything possible to rush assistance to those who need it. Now is the time for the international community to stand with the people of the Philippines."

U.S. HELICOPTERS TO AID RELIEF EFFORT

As a result of the horrendous plight currently facing the Filipino people and the overburdened U.N., Secretary of Defense for the US, Chuck Hagel, announced on Monday that the US would be sending the George Washington Strike Group to the area in order to assist with relief efforts. The strike group consists of 7 ships total: Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Cowpens and USS Antietam, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Lassen and USS Mustin, and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Charles Drew, Pathfinder class oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch, submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), and the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington: “Specifically, the aircraft carrier, USS George Washington and the cruisers USS Antietam and USS Cowpens will go to a position just off the eastern coast of Samar island in order to begin to assess the damage and provide logistical and emergency support to include medical and water supplies,” stated Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, commander of the George Washington Strike Group.

The nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier and accompanying ships arrived off eastern Samar province on Thursday evening, carrying 5,000 crew and more than 80 aircraft.

The carrier moved some fixed-wing aircraft ashore to make more room for the helicopters on its flight deck.

"One of the best capabilities the strike group brings is our 21 helicopters," commander Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery said in a statement. "These helicopters represent a good deal of lift to move emergency supplies around."

U.S. sailors have brought food and water ashore in Tacloban and the town of Guiuan.

The carrier is moored near where U.S. General Douglas MacArthur's force of 174,000 men landed on October 20, 1944, in one of the biggest Allied victories of World War Two.

Another U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, led a massive aid operation off Indonesia's Aceh province after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

Aquino has been on the defensive over his handling of the storm, given warnings of its projected strength and the risk of a storm surge, and now the pace of relief efforts.

He has said the death toll might have been higher had it not been for the evacuation of people and the readying of relief supplies, but survivors say they had little warning of any seawater surge.

Tacloban city administrator Tecson John Lim, who on Sunday estimated 10,000 likely died in his city alone, said Aquino may be deliberately downplaying casualties.

"Of course he doesn't want to create too much panic. Perhaps he is grappling with whether he wants to reduce the panic so that life goes on," he said.

The preliminary number of missing as of Thursday, according to the Red Cross, remained at 22,000. That could include people who have since been located, it has said.

'WHO IS IN CHARGE?'

Tacloban's main convention centre, the Astrodome, has become a temporary home for hundreds of people living in squalor. Families cooked meals amid the stench of garbage and urine. Debris was strewn along rows of seats rising from dark pools of stagnant water.

"We went into the Astrodome and asked who is in charge and just got blank stares," said Joe Lowry, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, which is setting up camps for the displaced.

Survivors formed long lines under searing sunshine, and then torrential rain, to charge mobile phones from the only power source available - a city hall generator. Others started to repair motorbikes and homes. A rescue worker cleared debris near a wall with the spray-painted words: "We need food".

Outside Tacloban, burials began for about 300 bodies in a mass grave on Thursday. A larger grave will be dug for 1,000, Lim said.

The city government remains paralysed, with an average of just 70 workers on duty, compared with 2,500 normally, he added. Many were killed, injured, lost family or were too overcome with grief to work.

More than 920,000 people have been displaced, the United Nations said. But many areas still have not received aid.

"It's true, there are still areas that we have not been able to get to where people are in desperate need," U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters in Manila. "I very much hope that in the next 48 hours, that will change significantly.

"Yes, I do feel that we have let people down because we have not been able to get in more quickly."