Corpses Rot Everywhere as Philippine Typhoon …...CBS/AP. Corpses rot everywhere as Philippine typhoon survivors beg for help. CBSnews.com. November 11, 2013. been trying to bury

CBS/AP. Corpses rot everywhere as Philippine typhoon survivors beg for help. CBSnews.com. November 11, 2013.

Vale Middle School Reading Article Corpses Rot Everywhere as Philippine Typhoon Survivors Beg For Help (1320L)

Instructions: COMPLETE ALL QUESTIONS AND MARGIN NOTES using the CLOSE reading strategies practiced in class. This requires reading of the article three times. Step 1: Skim the article using these symbols as you read:

(+) agree, (-) disagree, (*) important, (!) surprising, (?) wondering Step 2: Number the paragraphs. Read the article carefully and make notes in the margin.

Notes should include: o Comments that show that you understand the article. (A summary or statement of the main

idea of important sections may serve this purpose.) o Questions you have that show what you are wondering about as you read. o Notes that differentiate between fact and opinion. o Observations about how the writer’s strategies (organization, word choice, perspective,

support) and choices affect the article. Step 3: A final quick read noting anything you may have missed during the first two reads. Your margin notes are part of your score for this assessment. Answer the questions carefully in complete sentences unless otherwise instructed.

Student ____________________________Class Period__________________

Notes on my thoughts, reactions and questions as I read:

Corpses rot everywhere as Philippine typhoon survivors beg for help (Tacloban, Philippines) Bloated bodies lie in the streets, in front of houses, on bridges, in the water, wherever the giant wall of water happened to dump them when Typhoon Haiyan hit. The desperate survivors scrounging for food amid the mountains of debris use cloth to shield their noses from the overpowering stench of rotting corpses. Some relatives have been trying to bury their dead, but in too many cases, there is no one to cart away the corpses littering the city of Tacloban, which was all but decimated by on one of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall. "Those are dead people in front of our house and the smell is awful," a woman told a reporter. The typhoon struck Friday with 147-mph winds and a 20-foot fall of seawater. Authorities estimate the storm killed 10,000 or more people, but so far no one has been able to count all the bodies. And with shattered communications and transportation links, the final count was likely days away. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said "we pray" it does not surpass 10,000. "I don't believe there is a single structure that is not destroyed or severely damaged in some way - every single building, every single house," U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy said after taking a helicopter flight over Tacloban, the largest city in Leyte province. He spoke on the tarmac at the airport, where two Marine C-130 cargo planes were parked, engines running, unloading supplies. Authorities said at least 9.7 million people in 41 provinces were affected by the typhoon, known as Haiyan elsewhere in Asia but called Yolanda in the Philippines. It was likely the deadliest natural disaster to beset this poor Southeast Asian nation. Kennedy said Philippine forces were handling security well and U.S. troops were "looking at how to open up roads and land planes and helicopters" in order to bring in shelter, water and other supplies.

Corpses Rot Everywhere as Philippine Typhoon Survivors Beg For Help


Still, collapsed roads and bridges, and streets clogged with debris, have made it hard for relief workers to reach the survivors lining up for food, water and medicine, "We are so very hungry and thirsty," a woman with tears rolling down her face told a BBC News reporter. She said she had been sleeping by a roadside because her house was flattened by the storm. Other survivors were anxious to get word to relatives.

Philippine soldiers were distributing food and water, and assessment teams from the United Nations and other international agencies were seen Monday for the first time. The U.S. military dispatched food, water, generators and a contingent of Marines to the city, the first outside help in what will swell into a major international relief mission.

The wind, rain and coastal storm surges transformed neighborhoods into twisted piles of debris, blocking roads and trapping decomposing bodies underneath. Cars and trucks lay upended among flattened homes, and bridges and ports were washed away. "In some cases the devastation has been total," said Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras.

Those caught in the storm were worried that aid would not arrive soon enough. "We're afraid that it's going to get dangerous in town because relief goods are trickling in very slow," said Bobbie Womack, an American missionary from Athens, Tenn. "I know it's a massive, massive undertaking to try to feed a town of over 150,000 people. They need to bring in shiploads of food."

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III declared a "state of national calamity," allowing the central government to release emergency funds quicker and impose price controls on staple goods. He said the two worst-hit provinces, Leyte and Samar, had witnessed "massive destruction and loss of life" but that elsewhere casualties were low.

Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippines on Friday and quickly barreled across its central islands, with winds that gusted to 170 mph. It inflicted serious damage to at least six islands in the middle of the eastern seaboard. The storm's sustained winds weakened to 74 mph as the typhoon made landfall in northern Vietnam early Monday after crossing the South China Sea, according to the Hong Kong meteorological observatory. Authorities there evacuated hundreds of thousands of people, but there were no reports of significant damage or injuries. It was downgraded to a tropical storm as it entered southern China later Monday, and weather officials forecast torrential rain in the area until Tuesday. The Philippines, an archipelago nation of more than 7,000 islands, is annually buffeted by tropical storms and typhoons, which are called hurricanes and cyclones elsewhere. The impoverished and densely populated nation of 96 million people is in the northwestern Pacific, right in the path of the world's No. 1 typhoon generator, according to meteorologists. The archipelago's exposed eastern seaboard often bears the brunt.

Even by the standards of the Philippines, however, Haiyan was an especially large catastrophe. Its winds were among the strongest ever recorded, and it appears to have killed more people than the previous deadliest Philippine storm, Thelma, in which about 5,100 people died in the central Philippines in 1991. The country's deadliest disaster on record was the 1976 magnitude-7.9 earthquake that triggered a tsunami in the Moro Gulf in the southern Philippines, killing 5,791 people.

Notes on my thoughts, reactions and questions as I read:





Comprehension questions – answers may be in phrases.

1. By what two terms are typhoons known in other areas of the world? By what two names is this typhoon being identified?

2. Who is the president of the Philippines?

3. Define decimated as used in the text.

4. Name the weather agency that reported on the typhoon as it passed into Vietnam.

5. Define impoverished as used in the text. 8.RI.1,4

2. Answer each question in one or more complete sentences. Explain the term archipelago and identify the context clues that provide the definition. Paragraph 3 states that military planes are “parked, engines running, unloading supplies.” For what reason would the engine still be running? Why would the Philippine government need to “impose price controls on staple goods”? 8.RI.3,4,5,10

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3. In a well-organized paragraph, explain the severity of this typhoon to someone who has not had the opportunity to read the article. Cite textual evidence to support your claim.

8.RI.1,2,5,6

4. Review the last two paragraphs. What is the author’s purpose in writing these two paragraphs? Is the author effective? Explain in detail and cite from the text.

8.RI.5,6


Documents

Corpses Rot Everywhere as Philippine Typhoon …...CBS/AP. Corpses rot everywhere as Philippine typhoon survivors beg for help. CBSnews.com. November 11, 2013. been trying to bury