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TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) - Since the typhoon hit, Danny Estember has been hiking three hours round-trip into the mountains each day to obtain what he can only hope is clean water for his five daughters and two sons.
The exhausting journey is necessary because safe water is desperately scarce in this storm-ravaged portion of the Philippines. Without it, people struggling to rebuild and even survive risk catching intestinal and other diseases that can spread if they're unable to wash properly.
While aid agencies work to provide a steady supply, survivors have resorted to scooping from streams, catching rainwater in buckets and smashing open pipes to obtain what is left from disabled pumping stations. With at least 600,000 people homeless, the demand is massive.
"I'm thirsty and hungry. I'm worried _ no food, no house, no water, no money," said Estember, a 50-year-old ambulance driver.
Thousands of other people who sought shelter under the solid roof of the Tacloban City Astrodome also must improvise, taking water from wherever they can _ a broken water pipe or a crumpled tarp. The water is salty and foul tasting but it is all many have had for days.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine defines an adequate daily intake of fluids as roughly 3 liters (100 ounces) for men and about 2.2 liters (75 ounces) for women. Given the shortages and hot climate, it's certain that most in the disaster zone aren't getting anything like those amounts, leaving them prone to energy-sapping dehydration.
Providing clean, safe drinking water is key to preventing the toll of dead and injured from rising in the weeks after a major natural disaster. Not only do survivors need to stay hydrated, they also need to be protected from waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
Haiti's devastating January 2010 earthquake was followed by a cholera outbreak in October 2011 that health officials say has killed more than 8,000 people and sickened nearly 600,000. The two events were not linked but it added misery to the entire country as it was still recovering from the first disaster. Some studies have shown that cholera may have been introduced in Haiti by U.N. troops from Nepal, where the disease is endemic.
TACLOBAN, Philippines — Eight days have passed since Typhoon Haiyan blasted the Philippines. A major international relief effort is underway, with food and medical supplies coming in from many nations. But, getting back to normal is a long way away at this point.
Several Utahns rode out the terrifying storm: Some LDS missionaries, who for several days were unaccounted for. They told their stories to Deseret News reporter, Jesse Hyde and photographer Ravell Call, who arrived in the Philippines a couple days ago.
When the storm hit the Philippines last week it devastated the city of Tacloban, snapping trees and leveling office buildings.
In the immediate aftermath, no one knew for sure what had become of the 205 missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in in the area. They had been through tropical storms before, and many had no idea what they were in for.
"A lot of people weren't prepared at all for anything of this magnitude," Sister Rebekah Guy said.
Sister Guy tried to sleep through the storm, but at 5 a.m. she could no longer ignore the howling wind.
"One of us looked out the window and we saw the water rising up the side of the house," Guy said. "I'd never seen a flood before in my life and so it kind of worried us all."
The 10 sisters staying in the apartment retreated to a central room on the second floor and shut the door, but before long the water was seeping beneath the door.
"The floodwater was rising on the inside of the apartment and people were not able to touch the floor anymore and we were just trying to find a way out of the house at this point," Guy continued.
The water rose so fast the sisters were swimming to stay above it, as it inched ever closer to the ceiling. Eventually, they found a way out of the house and climbed to a rooftop, where they said a prayer.
"In that prayer we asked for a miracle, we asked that the floodwaters wouldn't rise anymore and by the time that prayer ended, the waters didn't rise anymore," Guy said.
Within days all the missionaries in Tacloban were accounted for and eventually taken to Manila, where they gathered at the Philippines MTC for their new assignment.
"It's something of a miracle that all 205 missionaries who are in the Tacloban mission made it out alive," Guy said. "For many today is a day to go home, for others their mission will continue as they are transferred to other cities in the mission, but either way it's a bittersweet day."
Now that all the missionaries in the Philippines are accounted for, the work for the church in the country shifts to helping members in affected areas rebuild their cities.
"It's been a real challenging experience for them but these Filipinos are faithful, resilient, courageous people and they do need help and with that help they'll come back," said Elder Ian Ardern, First Counselor in the Philippines Area Presidency.
The path forward is daunting, with millions of Filipinos affected by the storm, and thousands still displaced, but for those missionaries who survived, there is nothing they want more than to see this island nation get back on its feet.
Washing regularly, using latrines and boiling drinking water are the best ways to avoid contracting diarrhea and other ailments that could burden already stressed health services.
It took several days for aid groups to bring large quantities of water to Tacloban, the eastern Philippine city where the typhoon wreaked its worst destruction. By Friday, tankers were arriving. Philippine Red Cross workers sluiced water into enormous plastic bladders attached to faucets from which people fill jerry cans, buckets, bottles and whatever other containers they might have.
"I'm thirsty," said Lydia Advincula, 54, who for the last few days had been placing buckets out doors to catch some of the torrential downpours that have added to the misery of homeless storm survivors.
Water provisioning should get a big boost with the recent arrival of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George Washington, a virtual floating city with a distillation plant that can produce 1.5 million liters (400,000 gallons) of fresh water per day _ enough to supply 2,000 homes, according to the ship's website.
Britain also is sending an aircraft carrier, the HMS Illustrious, with seven helicopters and facilities to produce fresh water, Britain's Ministry of Defense said. It said the ship is expected to reach the area about Nov. 25.
Filtration systems are now operating in Tacloban, the center of the relief effort, and two other towns in Leyte province, the hardest-hit area. Helicopters are dropping bottled water along with other relief supplies to more isolated areas.
Other more high-tech water purification solutions are also available, such as water purification bottles developed since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated parts of Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. Those contain systems that filter out parasites, bacteria and other dangerous substances from virtually any water source, making it safe to drink and alleviating the high cost and logistical difficulties that shipping in bottled water entails.
Longer-term water solutions will come once the crucial issues of shelter and security are settled and will likely have to wait several months, said John Saunders, of the U.S.-based International Association of Emergency Managers. Those water systems are far more complex, requiring expensive, specialized equipment and training for operators, he said.
"I can bring in a $300,000 water system that provides thousands of liters per day of drinking water, but who pays for the system and how is it maintained and distribution managed?" Saunders said.
Long-term solutions are a distant concern for Jaime Llanera, 44, as he stands in a shelter he and his family have fashioned out of broken plywood and a tarpaulin.
A single 500-milliliter (12-ounce) bottle of mineral water delivered by the military three days earlier is all that's available for his parents, sister, brother-in-law and a friend. To stretch their supply, they've been collecting rainwater in buckets and any other containers they can find and boiling it. They're also using rainwater to clean: His mother dunks clothing into a bucket of rainwater and tries to scrub out the filth.
The family plans to wait one more week. If help hasn't come by then, they'll try to find a way out of Tacloban so they can stay with relatives elsewhere. "We have no house. We have no home. But we're still intact," Llanera said.
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Christopher Bodeen reported from Beijing.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
