Philippines Red Cross: Typhoon Devastation 'Absolute Bedlam'

Jenny Dela Cruz lost 11 members of her family including her daughter. Photo by BBC

The head of the Red Cross in the Philippines has described the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan as "absolute bedlam".

Up to 10,000 people are believed to have died in Tacloban city and hundreds elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced.

Four million people have been affected in the Philippines, and many are now struggling to survive without food, shelter or clean drinking water.

"There's an awful lot of casualties, a lot of people dead all over the place, a lot of destruction," Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, told the BBC.

"It's absolute bedlam right now, but hopefully it will turn out better as more and more supplies get into the area."

He said roads had now been cleared to allow relief workers to get to the hardest hit areas, but that they expected to find many more casualties.

"It's only now that they were able to get in and we're beginning just to bring in the necessary food items... as well as water and other things that they need."

The typhoon flattened homes, schools and an airport.

It has since made landfall in northern Vietnam, near the Chinese border, where it has weakened to a tropical storm.

A huge international relief effort is underway, but rescue workers have struggled to reach some towns and villages cut off since the storm.

Forecasters predicted a tropical depression would move into the south and central Philippines on Tuesday, potentially bringing heavy rains that would further hamper relief efforts.

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