Emergency Aid Reaches Typhoon Survivors in Remote Areas

Logistical issues have slowed transportation of supplies in the Philippines

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Dondi Tawatao / Getty Images

Residents wait in line to receive relief goods in an area devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in Leyte, Philippines, on Nov. 12, 2013

A surge of food and medical supplies sent to typhoon victims in the Philippines finally reached remote parts of the archipelago that humanitarian groups have had difficulty accessing.

More than 170,000 people have received rice rations or food packets in Leyte’s Tacloban city, one of the hardest hit regions in the super typhoon that wreaked havoc on the country last weekend, Agence France-Presse reports.

Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders said they anticipate having mobile surgical units running in Tacloban by the end of the weekend, while Thursday’s arrival of the USS George Washington brought 118 tons of food, water and emergency supplies. The U.S. military also said it airlifted 2,900 people to safety.

The death toll stands at 3,633, with 1,179 people missing and nearly 12,500 injured, according to the most recent update from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

[Agence France-Presse]