Filipino Newborns Nowhere To Go After Typhoon

Their mothers may have survived the worst storm ever recorded, but early life for many newborns in the Phillipines looks hard.

Many of these infants in a crowded rural hospital don't have homes to return to after super Typhoon Haiyan tore through the Phillipines, killing thousands.

Twenty-year-old Jingle Poyos gave birth on Wednesday (November 13). Her house was destroyed when the typhoon hit on Friday (November 8).

"Many trees falling down and at that time actually I don't know where I'm going, I just go running and running. My stomach was so big," she said, describing when the storm hit.

"Maybe we are leaving, I don't know. Because I don't have a house. I don't have a house now, then no food, no water, nothing," she said.

The hospital where they are staying in Bogo, a small city on the typhoon-wrecked northern end of the Philippine island of Cebu, has no power and relies on water donated by the red cross.

While headlines have mostly focused on the death and chaos in the city of Tacloban and its surrounding area, Super Typhoon Haiyan left a much wider path of chaos across the central Philippines as it ploughed west into areas like Bogo.

Five days after the disaster, aid is still only dribbling in, while basic necessities are going unmet.

Officials in Cebu province estimate as many as 90 percent of buildings on the north of the island were severely damaged by the storm's winds and rain, which also flattened crops, downed powerlines and blocked roads. Many in Bogo are now taking refuge in the sports centre.

President Benigno Aquino said local officials had overstated the loss of life, saying it was closer to 2,000 or 2,500 than the 10,000 previously estimated. His comments, however, drew scepticism from some aid workers.

Official confirmed deaths stood at 1,774 on Tuesday.

Presented by Adam Justice