The typhoon Haiyan or Yolanda death toll in Tacloban City, Philippines is expected to further increase as local authorities and even residents begin to collect dead bodies of their loved ones and bury them. A mass burial started on Wednesday, November 13, with Mayor Alfred Romualdez hoping that no more dead bodies will fill up the grave having the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

"I hope this is the last time I see something like this. When I look at this, it just reminds me of what has happened from the day the storm hit until today," Mayor Romualdez stated. The mayo further declared that dozens of trucks will be roaming the city to look and collect the dead bodies at the roadside.

Senior superintendent police officer Emmanuel Aranas revealed that some of the dead bodies retrieved came from the ocean. "Many bodies still lay untouched among the debris on the city's streets, though, an indication of just how far the relief effort has to go. Thousands more body bags are on the way," Mr Aranas declared.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, President Benigno Aquino III told CNN that the death toll estimation is closer to 2,000 or 2,500 compared to initial 10,000 death toll report that the local authorities provided. However, it is believed that there are more people who tragically died from super typhoon Haiyan.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officials who performed autopsies on the retrieved corpses were able to extract a portion of the femur from each corpse. "Technicians will extract DNA from each bit of bone to try to identify the dead," Joseph David, the crime photographer for the bureau, stated.

The Tacloban residents recalled that the waves slamming the area came from two directions and they were surprisingly high. "Out of 40 bodies autopsied so far, 90% had died from drowning," John Ilo, a police medical and legal officer, shared.

Some people who survived typhoon Haiyan described what they had to go through during the typhoon's peak in Tacloban. A woman identified as Winnie Villamarga, 32, shared that her family was able to survive typhoon Haiyan after lashing themselves together in their home during the storm surge.

"It was terrible, the worst I've ever seen and we get a lot of storms here. We had prepared food but it ran out yesterday. We were getting very worried about what would happen next," Ms Villamarga recounted. Another survivor named Elmer Fuentes, 47, shared: "We've seen many typhoons before, but we weren't prepared for the storm surge this time."

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