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           Cebu Island Struggles to Recover From Typhoon's Direct Hit

   by Steve Herman

   In the Philippines, much of the world's attention has focused on the
   devastated city Tacloban where authorities have struggled to deliver
   aid to tens of thousands of homeless residents.
   But scores of smaller towns across the country's central islands are
   only just being reached by aid workers a week after Typhoon Haiyan.
   Among them: Daanbantayan on Cebu island's northern tip, which was in
   the storm's direct path.
   A fledgling attempt is made at an aid station to transform frustration
   and confusion into organization. Food, water and other necessities are
   trickling in to coastal villages directly hit by winds of more than 300
   kilometers per hour.

   Francisco Oswa, his wife and their five children rode out the storm at
   his mother's sturdier house next door. "The roofs all flew off. Our
   neighbors' homes collapsed. Then our house was destroyed. We're poor
   people, we need help here. We are out of food," she explained through
   an interpretor.
   While Cebu's physical devastation is enormous, the human death toll is
   remarkably low. That is being attributed to most people heeding the
   mandatory evacuation notices. Figuring out where to shelter more than
   20,000 households is the latest challenge for Dann Andrio, an
   operations officer on assignment from the national interior department.
   "What we really need is temporary shelters," he said.  "A big help
   would be the used tarpaulins or big mats or any kind of plastic
   material that can sustain at least a day or so. Especially because
   Philippines is a tropical country. We're expecting not just summer also
   rainy season, rainy days."

   Under a blazing sun, children cluster by the roadside pleading hunger
   -- and a  fortunate few receive handouts. Some officials dismiss these
   children as being exploited by perennially impoverished parents to take
   advantage of the sympathies of foreign aid workers.
   But for most families here it has long been a hand-to-mouth existence,
   even when not contending with the destruction from one of the world's
   most powerful storms.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/cebu-village-struggles-to-recover-fro
   m-typhoons-direct-hit/1790945.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/cebu-village-struggles-to-recover-from-typhoons-direct-hit/1790945.html