Grieving survivors of a monster typhoon in the mainly Catholic Philippines flocked to shattered churches yesterday, listening to sermons and asking questions of God nine days after the storm ripped their communities apart.
The services offered a brief respite from the grinding battle to survive in the wastelands created by some of the strongest winds ever recorded and tsunami-like waves that destroyed dozens of coastal towns and killed thousands of people.
Aid has been slow in arriving, but an enormous international relief operation picked up momentum over the weekend, bringing food, water and medical supplies and airlifting basic necessities to isolated communities.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who has been criticized over the speed of his government’s response, called for understanding of the logistical challenges as he toured some of the worst-hit areas yesterday.
“Please have patience. These affected areas are really spread out,” Aquino said, adding: “Don’t lose hope.”
About 300 people in Guiuan, the first town to be hit by Typhoon Haiyan, attended mass yesterday in the courtyard of the ruined 400-year-old Immaculate Conception church.
Delivering the homily, Father Arturo Cablao commended the community’s strength of spirit, as parishioners — some of them silently weeping — stood among twisted roofing sheets, glass shards and mud.
About 80 percent of the Philippines’ 100 million people are Catholic, a legacy of Spanish colonial rule, and their steadfast faith was on display throughout the central islands that were devastated by Haiyan.
“The Lord has strengthened our faith and made us stronger in order for us to survive and start off all over again,” said Belen Curila, an elegantly dressed 71-year-old, who attended the mass in Guiuan.
In Tacloban, one of the hardest-hit cities, hundreds of devotees sat on flood-soaked pews at the 124-year-old Santo Nino church, which had its roof ripped off by Haiyan’s ferocious winds.
Violeta Simbulan, 63, said the priest’s sermon promising that God would always be there was a comfort after losing two cousins and an aunt in the disaster.
“Yes, I was reassured. As long as I have faith and constantly pray to God,” Simbulan said.
As the morning masses were held, the international relief effort continued to build, consolidating its initially tenuous grip on the catastrophic situation.
“The arrival was pretty slow at first but it is picking up extremely well,” World Food Programme emergency coordinator Samir Wanmali said at Tacloban airport.
The Philippine government said yesterday that 3,681 had so far been confirmed dead in the disaster, with another 1,186 people missing. The UN and other relief workers say the death toll will climb much higher over the coming months.
If the worst fears are realized, Haiyan could be the country’s deadliest natural disaster, surpassing the 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami that killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people on the southern island of Mindanao.
Dramatic video footage emerged yesterday showing the destructive size and power of the storm surge as it slammed into the Samar coastal town of Hernani.
“It was like a huge tsunami,” said Nickson Gensis, a staff member of the child development agency Plan International who recorded the surge from the second floor of a house that withstood the impact.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that the super typhoon was an “urgent warning” to mankind of the consequences of climate change.
Although many devotees in the Philippines were seeking comfort in God yesterday, for some the disaster was proving a severe test of their faith.
Father Edwin Bacaltos, the parish president at the Redemptorist Church in Tacloban, said that people had repeatedly asked him why the catastrophe had occurred.
“I didn’t give them any theological answer. I just listened and kept quiet. It’s not the time to rationalize,” he said.
Bacaltos said he also had struggled, breaking down while trying to say mass on the first Sunday after the disaster.
“I saw so many people killed. But this is not God’s punishment. I have told them that God still loves us. He will not abandon us,” he said.
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