Second Christmas in ruins in Philippine disaster zone

Terra Daily via AFP: Thousands of residents of the typhoon-weary city of Tacloban in the mainly Catholic Philippines prepared Wednesday to mark their second Christmas in ruins following two giant storms. A huge streetside Christmas lantern was the sole sign of the nation's most festive holiday in the city's Magallanes district, where shanties have replaced a community flattened by tsunami-like waves whipped up by Super Typhoon Haiyan 13 months ago.

Magallanes shopkeeper Aida Comendador, 46, lined up at the nearby local social welfare office to collect up to 10,000 pesos ($224) in government subsidies for repairs to her severely damaged house in the city on the central island of Leyte.

"We've managed to put up a ramshackle shelter out of 20 pieces of roofing sheets donated by a Catholic charity, but we still don't have a door and proper beds," the mother of three told AFP.

Haiyan, the strongest typhoon ever to hit land, left 7,350 people dead or missing, and the coastal neighbourhood of Magallanes highlights the slow pace of reconstruction.

Roughly a million people need to be moved away from Magallanes and other coastal areas deemed vulnerable to the monster waves generated by Haiyan, according to a 160-billion-peso ($3.6 billion) government rebuilding plan....

Temporary shelters provided by the United Nations sit beside remaining damage from Typhoon Haiyan as the aircraft carrying U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Tacloban City, Philippines, to announce $25 million in fresh U.S. recovery aid on December 18, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]