Three Canadian military helicopters and their crew are being deployed to the Philippines to help with relief efforts in the typhoon-ravaged country.
Defence Minister Rob Nicholson says two of the three CH-146 Griffon choppers will leave today from CFB Trenton, in eastern Ontario aboard a military transport plane.
- Live updates from typhoon-ravaged Philippines
- The power and fury of tropical storms
- Before and after photos of Typhoon Haiyan's destruction
- How you can help the survivors
- CBC's David Common reports on conditions
He says the choppers will give Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team — which is already in the Philippines — additional means to get to those most in need of assistance.
Canadian soldiers on the ground in the Philippines are making clean drinking water a priority in their relief efforts.
Col. Stephen Kelsey of Canadian Joint Operations Command says a transport plane carrying a water-purification system is en route to the storm-ravaged country and will be in place by early next week.
It will produce 50,000 litres of safe drinking water a day.
The typhoon death toll is now at 3,974, with 1,186 others, including 51 Canadians, listed as missing.
Philippines leader arrives in devastated city
Philippine President Benigno Aquino arrived in hard-hit Tacloban City on Sunday he sought to deflect criticism of the government response to Typhoon Haiyan.
The president arrived by helicopter and visited a medical centre. He has been criticized for the slow pace of aid distribution and unclear estimates of casualties, especially in Tacloban, capital of hardest-hit Leyte province.
The Philippines is facing up to an enormous rebuilding task from Typhoon Haiyan, with many isolated communities yet to receive significant aid despite a massive international relief effort.
The number of people displaced by the catastrophe is now estimated at 4 million and close to two million are reported to be both homeless and in dire need of aid.
An aid group on Sunday released amateur video showing waves washing away a house and submerging others in Hernani in Eastern Samar province after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall nine days ago.
U.K.-based Plan International says the video was shot by Plan Philippine's community development worker Nickson Gensis, who was sheltering on the second floor of a house less than a few hundred metres from the sea.
The aid worker says the water was like a huge tsunami.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar