Nov. 16, 2013

Preppers take heed: one only has to look at this real-life escalation of social and economic breakdown to better understand how a social and economic crisis can quickly spiral downwards into anarchy – where getting food and fresh water takes precedence over all else. Survival often comes down to the barrel of a gun.

Mayhem has ensued in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiya in the Leyte region of the Philippine Islands this week, as armed looters exchanged fire with local police. Businesses have been ransacked, food warehouses have been looted by rioting mobs, and hording by armed gangs has begun.

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Red Cross officials in the Philippines have described the scene as “absolute bedlam”. In some villages, reports are that the flood levels have not fully subsided and that dead bodies could still be seen floating in the streets. Municipal water supplies are not safe to use, and fears are that typhoid, cholera and microbe infections will spread. Aid and supplies are slow coming through, and in some cases – are not arriving at all.

Meanwhile, the biggest hurdle is not so much about collecting donations towards aid to the storm ravaged country, but more about who, and how all that money is being distributed (or being distributed into certain pockets). Thus far, here is a breakdown of aid to the Philippines this week (in $USD):

-U.N.: 25 million

-U.S.: 20 million

-UK: 16.1 million

-UAE: 10 million

-Australia: 9.5 million

-Canada: 4.8 million

-European Union: 4 million

-Norway: 3.4 million

-Denmark: 3.1 million

-New Zealand: 1.75 million

-Ireland: 1.4 million

-Vatican: 150,000

-China: 100,000

Source: U.N. OCHA 11/13/2013

In the event that disaster strikes, no matter where you are, it’s almost certain these days that you cannot rely on your government to sort out your day to day basic human needs. Those who were well-off enough to leave their towns on 48 hrs notice did so, but the majority of Filipinos did not have the means to to do that, and have found themselves in an every-man-for-himself, dire situation.

More on this deteriorating situation…

RT.com

Driven to despair, survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines turned to looting in search for food, water and medicine amid reports of warehouses and shops attacked in the aftermath of one of the strongest storms ever recorded.

As essential supplies dwindled, tensions rose. Since the storm hit the islands five days ago, residents have broken into homes, shops and warehouses, where they have drained shelves of food, water and other vital goods.

In the latest incident, Philippines security forces exchanged fire with armed looters in the village of Abucay, part of the worst-hit Tacloban in Leyte province, local ANC television reported on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, eight people were crushed to death after thousands of typhoon survivors stormed a government rice warehouse. Police and soldiers were helpless when the looting took place, National Food Authority spokesman said. The looters in Alangalang municipality carted away over 100,000 sacks of rice.

Warehouses owned by food and drinks company Universal Robina Corp and drug company United Laboratories in the storm-hit town of Palo, along with a rice mill in Jaro, were also ransacked.

“We have restored order,” director of the Philippine National Police special action force, Carmelo Espina Valmoria, told AP. “There has been looting for the last three days, [but] the situation has stabilized.”

“The looting is not criminality. It is self-preservation,” Tacloban city administrator John Lim told Reuters. Tacloban, the principal city in Leyte province which has also become the main relief hub, currently lies in ruins, with communications and transport cut off in many areas.

Typhoon survivors queue up to receive relief goods being distributed at the Tacloban airport in Tacloban, on the eastern island of Leyte on November 10, 2013 after Super Typhoon Haiyan swept over the Philippines. (AFP Photo / Ted Aljibe)

According to Lim, 90 percent of the coastal city of 220,000 people had been destroyed, with only 20 percent of residents receiving aid. Houses there are looted there because warehouses are empty, the official says.

Some survivors carried signs reading “Help us”. Others dug up water pipes in a desperate bid for water.

“We sourced our water from an underground pipe that we have smashed. We don’t know if it’s safe. We need to boil it. But at least we have something,” Christopher Dorano, told Reuters.

One of the survivors, Rachel Garduce, said the minimal aid – 3 kg of rice and 1 liter of water per household a day – was not enough in her ravaged Tacloban neighborhood.

Islands of Leyte and Samar appear to concentrate most of the death and destruction from Typhoon Haiyan which swept through six central Philippine islands. In Leyte province alone, thousands are feared dead or missing.

Over 11 million people may have been affected and some 673,000 displaced by the typhoon, according to the UN. The preliminary number of those missing, according to the Red Cross, is 22,000.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino said however, that the death toll could be lower than initially thought. It was allegedly closer to 2,000 or 2,500 than the widely-reported figure of 10,000 killed.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, official confirmed deaths stood at 2,275 on Wednesday, with another 3,665 injured.

Residents loot water damaged sacks of rice from a rice warehouse in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban in the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on November 11, 2013. (AFP Photo / Noel Celis)

Meanwhile, relief operations are only starting to gain momentum, with two more airports in the region reopening, allowing for more aid flights.

While thousands of survivors have been looking for a flight out, makeshift clinics have been set up at the damaged airport in Tacloban. Teams from Belgium, Japan, Israel and Norway had arrived in the Philippines to set up field hospitals. One doctor, Victoriano Sambale, told AP supplies of antibiotics and anesthetics arrived Tuesday for the first time. Until then, patients had to endure the pain, he said.

The US and UK have dispatched warships to the typhoon-ravaged islands to help facilitate relief efforts. Japan is also set to deploy troops to the country to aid affected areas. The ships are expected to arrive in the next two to three days.

“There is a huge amount that we need to do. We have not been able to get into the remote communities,” UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday in Manila, launching an appeal for $301 million to help those affected by the deadly storm.

Rescuers have managed to reach some previously cut off regions, such as Guiuan, a city of 40,000 people that was spared the storm surge. Local officials say 85 people died in Guiuan, with 24 missing.

The overall financial cost of the destruction is hard to assess so far. One report from the German-based CEDIM Forensic Disaster Analysis has put the total at $8 billion to $19 billion.

- See more at: http://globalresearchreport.com/2013/11/14/civil-war-rising-deadly-clashes-looting-erupts-in-philippines-over-food-and-water-supplies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+globalresearchreport+(Global+Research+Report)#sthash.VpUI5SA7.eSFYSgga.dpuf