Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2013 article

Three Months After Haiyan, Corpses Surface in Philippines City

Daily Finds of Bodies Impede Tacloban's Recovery From World's Worst Storm of 2013

By

Te-Ping Chen

Feb. 7, 2014 3:28 p.m. ET

Debris, including ships that washed ashore, continue to litter Tacloban. The city's mayor believes hundreds of bodies await discovery in the area. Tammy David for The Wall Street Journal

TACLOBAN, Philippines—Three months after the world's most powerful storm of 2013 devastated this waterfront city, residents still find around five bodies a day, sometimes more, a sign of a challenge the area faces before it can fully start to rebuild from Typhoon Haiyan.

Haiyan: Anatomy of a Disaster

How a Catastrophe Unfolded: As Typhoon Haiyan approached Tacloban, officials rushed to prepare for one of the most powerful storms ever recorded. But their efforts, it turned out, were woefully inadequate.

Extreme Typhoon

CSI Philippines-Style: Investigators try to solve thousands of individual mysteries in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

In one neighborhood just outside Tacloban on Friday, a quartet of curious children poked at the bleached skull and fluted finger bones of one of the storm's victims, nestled near a farm in an uneven patch of rubble that is covered with resurgent greenery.

"It's a woman," said 17-year-old Margorie Manaro, staring at the coarse hair caked to the bone. Leaning over toward the skeleton in a pair of mismatched flip-flops, she loses her balance and stumbles toward the body, giggling slightly. Neighbors say another 30 bodies have been located in the vicinity and have yet to be removed.

The mayor's office in Tacloban, among the worst-hit cities in Typhoon Haiyan, says it believes hundreds of bodies still await discovery in the area, despite massive efforts by government employees and aid agencies to clear debris and collect the dead.

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• Philippine Town Allowed Looting After Typhoon (12/2/13)
• Babies Still at Risk in Typhoon Recovery | PHOTOS (11/29/13)
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• Philippines Disaster Leaves Millions Without Homes (11/18/13)
• Typhoon Haiyan Survivors Begin Odyssey to Find Their Families (11/17/13)
• Philippines Left Reeling in Wake of Typhoon Haiyan (11/11/13)
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A total of 6,201 people are confirmed dead from the storm in all the Philippines. And an estimated 1,785 people are still missing nationwide since the storm sent 15-foot waves sweeping across low-lying areas of the country on Nov. 8, with some 700 or so people still unaccounted for in Tacloban alone. Between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6 in Tacloban, 28 bodies were found, officials said.

The fact that so many bodies are still being found underscores the magnitude of the disaster and the difficulty in moving forward, even months after wind and waves hit. With so many bodies still buried in the rubble, it could be months before serious rebuilding can begin.

A 17-year-old boy from Sitio Catuclin shows the bones of a typhoon victim. He came across the body while scavenging. Tammy David for The Wall Street Journal

Officials are also struggling to identify bodies they find. As of Feb. 6, only 146 corpses had been officially identified by name out of the 1,717 found and processed in Tacloban, according to Darwin Morallos, a senior inspector with the Scene of the Crime Operation, or SOCO, the Philippine police's crime-scene forensics team.

On Dec. 7, however, officials had told The Wall Street Journal that some 270 bodies had been identified by name. Mr. Morallos said the number identified might have dropped because identifications counted in December didn't offer sufficient detail, such as last names, to be included in updated tallies.

Three Months Later

Explore scenes of Tacloban, which is still digging itself out of the ruins after being flattened by Typhoon Haiyan.

View Graphics

Survivor Stories

Even though they could leave, these people chose to stay in Tacloban and help.

View Graphics

Photos by Te-Ping Chen and Tammy David

More Interactives

• Faces of Haiyan: The supertyphoon displaced more people than the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina combined. Take a look at the lives affected by the disaster.
• Before and After Typhoon Haiyan: Images of Tacloban, Philippines, before and after Typhoon Haiyan show the extent of the destruction wrought by the disaster on this city of about 220,000 people.
• On the Ground in the Philippines: Explore 360-degree scenes of life around the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.
• Displaced by Haiyan: For survivors whose homes were destroyed by the storm, the uncertainty lingers.

Still, there are signs of progress in the area. Tacloban's hotels are strung with electric lights and red hearts for Valentine's Day, and hardware stores hum with customers. The streets have largely been cleared, and a few bars and trendy restaurants have reopened. The stench from uncollected bodies is now largely gone, as remains have dried or have decomposed.

Francisco Barrado, a manager at a local branch of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, BPI.PH +0.23% said he has been deluged with car and small business loan applications. Many buildings have been freshly repainted, and some businesses—from beauty salons to Internet cafes—have reopened.

But in other important ways, work on rebuilding Tacloban has barely begun. Relief workers, including teams from the United Nations Development Programme, continue to cart away up to 300 trucks full of waste and debris a day. Perhaps a third of the original debris still needs to be cleared, said Lesley Wright, a UNDP spokesman.

Crumpled roofs and mangled cars are still visible among the shuttered storefronts. And most of the city remains without electrical power.

Some of Tacloban's schools reopened in January, but classrooms still leak rain. Many students evacuated to cities such as Manila after the storm have yet to return.