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              US Carrier Group to Arrive in Philippines Wednesday

   by VOA News

   The U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington is speeding toward a
   relief mission in the Philippines, where hundreds of thousands are
   displaced and thousands more are feared dead from Typhoon Haiyan.

   Pentagon spokesman George Little says the carrier and several other
   U.S. Navy ships will arrive in the area sometime Wednesday.

   "The Philippines is a treaty ally and the United States stands by its
   friends and allies in times of crisis," said Little.

   The aircraft carrier, with 5,000 sailors and 80 aircraft on board, will
   help provide food, water, medical supplies, shelter and hygiene
   products. The Pentagon notes the ship can produce more than 400,000
   gallons of fresh water each day.

   The official death toll reached 1,774 on Tuesday, with many fearing the
   final tally could top 10,000, a number given by local Philippine
   officials over the weekend. But President Benigno Aquino told CNN in an
   interview the number was too high and a final accounting will probably
   be about 2,000 to 2,500 dead.

   On Tuesday in Manila, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos appealed for
   $301 million in relief aid for the Philippines. Amos said the
   international response has been strong, but more needs to be done.

   The U.N. says 660,000 people were displaced by Typhoon Haiyan, which
   plowed through the remote region late last week with historically
   powerful winds and tsunami-like waves.

   Four days later, many have no access to food, water or medicine. Some
   of the most remote areas remained unreached. In the worst-hit city,
   Tacloban, widespread looting has been reported and dozens of rotting
   corpses lie in the streets.

   Though aid distribution has been slow, international relief efforts
   have begun to pick up.

   The Philippines has already sent troops to Tacloban. But as of Tuesday,
   aid distribution was slow, since soldiers there mainly worked to
   prevent looting and restore calm.

   Photographs and video circulating showed hundreds of people returning
   from the hills around Tacloban, only to find mounds of wreckage where
   their homes had stood in the once-thriving city of 220,000 residents.

   Other amateur footage showed streets that still are strewn with
   decomposing bodies, and dazed residents slogging through flattened
   neighborhoods looking for signs of life.

   Elizabeth Tromans with Catholic Relief Services says there is total
   devastation in Tacloban, located on the eastern side of the island of
   Leyte. But she told VOA that is just the beginning.

   "We're just starting to hear more and more about the devastation
   outside of the city. The devastation is also really widespread even on
   the western side of the island," says Tromans.

   Tromans says many residents prepared emergency goods and took shelter
   ahead of the storm. But she said the storm was so powerful that even
   many of the most well-prepared are now left with nothing.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-carrier-group-to-arrive-in-philippines-wednesday/1788838.html