Video: Destruction in wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan – ‘We now fear that thousands will have lost their lives’
9 November 2013 (Sky News) – More than 1,000 bodies are reported in just one Philippine town as a UN official likens the devastation to the 2004 tsunami. Thousands of people are feared to have been killed in the areas of the Philippines hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan. The country’s Red Cross says it has been told there are 1,000 dead in Tacloban and 200 in Samar alone. A Red Cross spokesman said: “We now fear that thousands will have lost their lives.” The scale of devastation led one UN disaster official to compare the destruction to that caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The official death toll had reached 138 by 1pm on Saturday (UK time) but there are fears the eventual death toll will be “massive” after the tropical cyclone smashed through the country with winds gusting up to 170mph. And there are growing fears for Vietnam which is now in the path of what has been called one of the most powerful recorded cyclones in history. […]
When asked how many had died in just the coastal town of Palo and its surrounding area, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said: “I think hundreds. Palo, Ormoc, Burauen, … Carigara, they all looked the same.” Scores of towns and villages are thought to have been inundated with water after storm surges flooded low-lying areas, drowning many in their path. When asked how many had died in just the coastal town of Palo and its surrounding area, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said: “I think hundreds. Palo, Ormoc, Burauen… Carigara, they all looked the same.” Scores of towns and villages are thought to have been inundated with water after storm surges flooded low-lying areas, drowning many in their path. Many of those who died are thought to have left shelters in an urgent bid to rescue valuables from their homes, unaware of the giant waves flooding through coastal towns. Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been left homeless. British team of humanitarian experts is due to fly out to the Philippines to help the UK Government decide what aid to send. […] Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have been moved away from coastal areas as authorities prepared for Haiyan to make landfall around 10am Sunday. Millions are thought to be living in its path. [more]
On Leyte, regional police chief Elmer Soria said the provincial governor had told him there were about 10,000 deaths there, primarily from drowning and collapsed buildings.
As I read it, that's an estimate of 10,000 just from that one island!
http://world.time.com/2013/11/09/philippine-typhoon-death-toll-could-reach-10000/