Lawlessness, damage stall typhoon relief

• Survivors desperate for food and water
• Tacloban may be without power for three months
• Aid is arriving from abroad

TACLOBAN, Philippines — People who survived the typhoon that ripped through here five days ago were struggling to survive in tropical heat without food and water Wednesday as lawlessness and destroyed roads and ports made delivery of aid difficult.

Mobs overran a rice warehouse on the outskirts of Tacloban on Leyte island, the area hit hardest by Typhoon Haiyan on Friday. A wall collapsed and eight people died as the crowd forced its way past armed guards and took off with sacks of grain.

Grocery stores left standing in this city of more than 200,000 have not brought in food or water from the northern part of the island where damage was not as severe, citing fears that the goods will be hijacked during transport or stolen. Gas station owners have not opened their tanks for the same reason.

Though massive amounts of food and water have arrived on nearby islands and in parts of Leyte, it cannot be moved into the city in large amounts because there is no fuel for trucks nor have many roads been cleared.

"I live on the road from the airport and I haven't seen any goods coming out," said businessman Noel Mateo, 50, who lost five of his seven trucks to storm surge Friday. "I don't see any reason at all why they can't give out the stocks," he said.

Mateo said he has heard "good news" on his radio about extensive relief arriving on the island even though he has not seen it.

Thousands of people are heading to places where they hear food is available; some are looting whatever they can find and armed men are stealing and selling for profit. Most people have no homes. They are squatting on the pile of debris that was once their home to keep away looters.

The Philippines central government says it is taking charge in Tacloban to stop the criminal activity and lawlessness so aid and trucks can get through safely and the many corpses that are causing an awful stench in the heat can be buried quickly.

"The city government is still trying to be in charge, but we have no capacity," Tecson John Lim, the Tacloban city administrator, said Wednesday.

"Just like the tsunami in Indonesia, all service providers have been affected from the mayor on down, so organization has not been good yet and needs central government control," said Thelma Barerra, a Department of Health official who led a team of psychological health workers that flew in with 55 doctors from Manila hospitals.

The 2004 Indonesia tsunami killed far more than Haiyan in the Philippines. The death toll in Indonesia was estimated at nearly 230,000. So far, 2,275 have been confirmed dead in the Philippines but the mayor's office says at least 5,000 to 10,000 may be dead.

Planes, ships and trucks, many bearing goods from international donors, were continuing to head to the region, including the USS George Washington aircraft carrier equipped with helicopters to fly essentials constantly in and out of hard to reach spots.

Generators, water purifying kits and emergency lights were on their way too. The city has been without power since Friday because even generators were flooded and unusable.

Airports clogged with debris from 147 mph winds of Haiyan were reopening in the region and the U.S. military said it was installing equipment to allow the damaged Tacloban aiport to operate at night as well as day.

Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said he still felt the best thing for his residents to do is leave the city until authorities can get things under control.

"There's a bit of a logjam to be absolutely honest getting stuff in here," said U.N. staffer Sebastian Rhodes Stampa as C-130 transport planes landed behind him at the airstrip in Tacloban.

"It's almost all in country — either in Manila or in Cebu, but it's not here. We're going to have a real challenge with logistics in terms of getting things out of here, into town, out of town, into the other areas," he said. "The reason for that essentially is that there are no trucks, the roads are all closed."

Beranandita Valenzuela, executive assistant to the Tacloban mayor and city information officer, said the city government is paralyzed.

"Everything was destroyed, we don't have personnel, even the police have lost relatives, we have vehicles but no drivers, they must help their families first," Valenzuela said.

"Some residents have not received goods, because the roads are impassable," but aid will come in the next few days, she said.

The death toll remains unclear.

"Nobody can get figures at this time. We were bracing for a super typhoon and we did not reckon for a tsunami. No one was spared, it is something that approximates the atomic bomb destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima," said Valenzuela.

Despite six nights of camping in a chair at city hall, she said the city will recover.

"It's easier said than done, but it can be done," she vowed.

Despite the chaos in the absence of official help, communities are helping each other.

Trucking boss Mateo encouraged 45 of his neighbors, living in shanty-style weak dwellings, to avoid the storm in his stronger built home, just 30 yards from the shore. The water reached waist-deep on the second floor but everyone survived, he said.

Now 18 neighbors remain there as their homes were washed away, and he has fed them with supplies prepared ahead of the storm by his party caterer wife.

"We help each other," he said. "One neighbor owns a pig that we butchered and cooked and that's what keeping us alive now," plus some Coca-Cola, mixed with water to last longer, looted from the damaged Coca-Cola bottling plant next door.

But his family hopes to fly to Manila soon because they are afraid an epidemic of disease will break out from the many corpses, bloated, rotting and still lying in streets or floating in the sea.

"I will stay to watch the business and properties, and I promised to help the people staying in my house," said Mateo.

Hungry survivors are upset and desperate in a city that is part war zone and part garbage dump.

"The central government does what they think they should, and we coordinate," city administrator Lim said.

The city will be without power for another three months, said Lim, although he said the Philippine energy secretary mandated the process be completed in two months.

According to Barerra, her own team still lacks their medical and goods supplies, stuck at Tacloban airport.

A 40-strong Belgian emergency response team flew 30 hours and landed Tuesday morning, ready to set up a tent hospital. But all their equipment and medical supplies remained stuck at the airport Wednesday, said Koenraad Schwatgen, a member of the B-FAST team.

"It's frustrating but understandable. We have to adapt to local conditions," he said. "We are here to help them in their way, but we always want to help a little bit faster."

Contributing: The Associated Press