Raiding Corpse for Food

"This typhoon has stripped us of our dignity... but I still have my family and I am thankful for that," Edward Gualberto, a village councillor and a father-of-four told AFP.

Mr Gualberto, despite being shameful, admitted stealing and raiding corpse for food.

"I am a decent person. But if you have not eaten in three days, you do shameful things to survive," he disgracefully added. Mr Gualberto ransacked canned goods from the corpses, unmindful of swarming flies and foul stench from the dead bodies.

"We have no food, we need water, and other things to survive."

After raiding corpses, he "fortunately" collected a bag-full of spaghetti noodles, detergent, soap, canned goods, biscuits and candies.

Zombie-like Survivors

"People are walking like zombies looking for food. It's like a movie," described Jenny Chu, a medical student who volunteered to attend to the survivors.

Hundreds of puzzled men, women, including children wandered lost along roads with scattered corpses, wrecked cars and debris. They wandered in a meaningless way hoping to chance upon food and shelter.

Sisters Maritess Tayag and Maryann Tayag had thankfully reached the local airport despite being almost dehydrated, covered with mud and shaking uncontrollably. They were just thankful they were alive.

"I was in the house - trapped in my room. The water is up to my nose - I cannot breathe anymore. I am trying to save myself," Maritess Tayag told the Associated Press.

She recalled the early hours of typhoon Haiyan with horror. She said the strong winds brought flood with awfully black seawater.

She hysterically recalled how she saw her brother fighting the waters to keep his head above, saving their mother. But unfortunately the water devoured both of them.

"It reached up over his head. Then a big wave of fast flood reached up higher. I feel I would die at this moment because I can't - I don't know what I will do. I cry a lot of cry shouting 'Mom!' Open, open please open help us somebody."

"It's all washed out ... including the hospitals and malls, by the strong winds and floods that came. The hardest thing is ... seeing your mother floating in the flood and you don't know what to do. You just see there and the only thing is have to save yourself. I could not save her because she drowned already, and it was not just water from the sea but mixed with dirty water - color black, like came from river and smell like canal."

Maryann Tanyag on the other hand was fortunate to have had climbed the roof before the water could devour her. She said what was left of their town was reminiscent of World War II.

Mirasol Saoyi, told AFP, that the rushing flood seemed endless.

"The huge waves came again and again, flushing us out on the street and washing away our homes. My husband tied us together, but still we got separated among the debris. I saw many people drowning, screaming and going under... I haven't found my husband."

Even the bravest of the military men tasked to collect the corpses along the roads were shocked by the horrifying sight.

"There are six trucks going around the city picking up the dead, but it's not enough. There are bodies everywhere, we do not have enough people to get to them," a man driving a military vehicle said during an interview.

Some zombie-like survivors with wounds on their faces and limping due to injury were aimlessly giving letters to media pleading to contact the numbers written on the papers. Those were telephone numbers of their relatives to whom they were asking for rescue; others simply wanted their relatives to know they were alive.

Australian citizen Mila Ward was shocked by the sight of corpses along the streets just covered with plastics or blankets.

"They were covered with blankets, plastic. There were children and women," she said.

Desperately Looting for Food

Other survivors admitted breaking glass windows and doors - with hammers and steel barricades - to steal food from convenience shops.

In one incident, a meat shop owner took out his handgun and threatened to shot the looters if they do not stop stealing from his shop.

However, seeing the desperation of the survivors, the owner just fell silent, cursed in futile attempt and walked away.

Meanwhile, a pastry shop owner, Emma Bermejo, said that the lootings were due to lawlessness amidst the chaos that typhoon Haiyan had caused.

"There is no security personnel, relief goods are too slow to arrive. People are dirty, hungry, and thirsty. A few more days and they will begin to kill each other. This is shameful. We have been hit by a catastrophe and now our businesses are gone. Looted. I can understand if they take our food and water, they can have it. But TV sets? Washing machines?!" she said.

Even city administrator Tecson John Lim said they cannot do anything to prevent people from looting.

"They are taking everything, even appliances like TV sets. These will be traded later on for food. We don't have enough manpower. We have 2,000 employees but only about 100 are reporting for work. Everyone is attending to their families," Mr Lim said.

Meantime, the city officials had collected 300-400 bodies out of the estimated 10,000 dead.