Bodies are seen on a road before being placed in a mass grave on the outskirts of Tacloban City on November 20, 2013 in Leyte, Philippines.
The official death toll from Supertyphoon Haiyan (known as Yolanda in the Philippines) hit 5,719 on Wednesday, as the arduous process of counting bodies continues.
The Inquirer reports that decomposing corpses are continuously being seen, but the pace of tallying them is slow, since they need to be recovered and processed before being added to the list.
Of 80 bodies recently discovered near San Juanico bridge only 10 had been retrieved, said 8th Infantry Division Captain Amado Gutierrez.
“The rest have yet to be retrieved because of the mangroves,” he said.
According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, 1,779 people are still missing. The typhoon is also estimated to have caused $390 million in damaged infrastructure and the same amount again in ruined crops.
[Inquirer]