1.32 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Typhoon survivors wait for aid in the Philippines

A woman carries a baby at an evacuation centre for victims of Typhoon Haima in San Fernando, la Union in northern Philippines. (Reuters)

Published
By AFP

Hungry Philippine typhoon survivors huddled in makeshift shelters and waited for aid on Friday, after losing nearly everything from one of the most powerful storms to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Super Typhoon Haima struck late on Wednesday night with winds similar to those of catastrophic Haiyan in 2013, which was then the strongest storm to hit the disaster-prone country and claimed more than 7,350 lives.

At least eight people were killed and another was missing while tens of thousands lost their homes as Haima devastated farming and mountain communities across the north of the Philippines' main island of Luzon on Thursday.

"I cried when I saw my beans and squash plants that had been raked off by the winds. My mango trees were also toppled," farmer Leonardo Longan, 66, told AFP in the town of Penablanca, close to where Haima made landfall.

Like many of his neighbours, Longan and his wife now live in an improvised shelter with palm leaves for a roof, blankets for walls and a bed made from the collapsed wooden wall of his old dwelling.