November 9, 2013 – Tacloban, PHILIPPINES (CNN) – Officials rushed body bags to devastated communities Saturday after Super Typhoon Haiyan left more than 100 bodies strewn on the streets of one coastal city. The bodies in Tacloban city were the first significant casualty report. A military spokesman said after soldiers arrived at the city, they asked for more bags. “There are numbers of undetermined casualties found along the roads. We have to send the requested 100 body bags in the area,” Lt. Jim Aris Alagao told the Philippines news agency. Shell-shocked Filipinos gathered around the airport, hoping the military was bringing food, water and medicine. Others waded through waist-high water in the streets. Flipped-over vehicles, fallen utility poles and trees snapped in half landed on roads, blocking transportation. Officials say the number of casualties is expected to go up once they get access to devastated areas. It’ll take days to get the full scope of the damage by a typhoon described as one of the strongest storms to make landfall in recorded history. In addition to the fatalities, at least 100 people were injured in Tacloban, said Capt. John Andrews, deputy director of the national Civil Aviation Authority. The destruction is expected to be catastrophic. Storm clouds covered the entire Philippines, stretching 1,120 miles — equal to a distance between Florida and Canada. The deadly wind field, or tropical storm force winds, covered an area the size of Montana or Germany. The typhoon first barreled onto the country’s eastern island of Samar on Friday morning, flooding streets and knocking out power and communications in most of Eastern Visayas region. It first landed near Dulag and Tacloban, flooding coastal communities with a surge of water and delivering 195 mph winds with gusts reaching as high as 235 mph. It continued its march, barreling into five other Philippine islands. -CNN
