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November 12th, 2013
10:59 PM ET
"The Ghost" of Tacloban
Alfred Romualdez is the mayor of Tacloban. Residents call him "The Ghost" because they believed he died in Typhoon Haiyan, and he nearly did. There is little left standing in his city. CNN's Andrew Stevens spoke to Mayor Romualdez about the growing humanitarian crisis in Tacloban and how close he came to being swept away by the storm surge.
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Post by: AC360 Filed under: Andrew Stevens • Typhoon Haiyan |
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What this shows is that Philippine officials did not have an understanding bordering on clueless on what a category 5 storm would mean. Days before th storm, weather warnings have been raised that the the typhoon would bring in winds of at least 300 kph. The reason why the government is all prepared at all levels is because they do not understand what the situation is. If governemnt officials themselves are clueless, then the ordinary Filipino himself is helpless. Every year we get typhoons that is stronger than the last time and we hear the same thing everytime. Always ill-prepared. It is time to ask the right questions and stop accepting flimsy excuses from the government.
I am from Tacloban and I find this report offensive. That the mayor would find time to be interviewed and waste his time explaining his whereabouts and talk about his ordeal that thousands of his constituents did not have the luck to have survived and to which thousands more share the same, all this duriing a search and rescue phase of aid is nauseatingly insensitive to watch. I think he should have begged off from this kind pf interview for another more appropriate time and spent his precious time aiding his fellow Taclobanons.
Does he happen to be related to Imelda Romualdez Marcos? And did anyone bother to check out his story of survival? Funny how NO ONE, not a single person, in his family perished when practically everyone else lost at least one family member. Especially since the family home was right along the water. Funny how fat cat politicians all seem to have 9 lives, huh?
THIS IS A PLEA. PLEASE COVER HERNANI, EASTERN SAMAR where the first landfall happened. My 87 years old grandfather is there together with other survivors. THEY HAVE BEEN HUNGRY FOR 5 DAYS. NO RELIEF GOODS ON SIGHT. SOME SMALL ISLANDS NEAR HERNANI HAVE BEEN TOTALLY WASHED OFF, ZERO SURVIVORS. PLEASE MR.COOPER. WE BEG YOU.