Initially, Red Cross reported 1,500 deaths, though only a hundred bodies had been recovered. The different sources of information have gone beyond the initial data to say that the number of deaths could soar to 10,000. Families and relatives of friars Leander Leander Barrot, Larry Garces, Tony Limchaypo, Renie Villalino, Sixto Bitangjol, Anthony Morillo, Delfin & Randy Castillo, Glynn Ortega, Gideon Lagrimas, Joel Alve and various formands reside in the most affected area. The Augustinian Recollect Sisters also have a school and various religious in the area. Up to now, communicating with them has been impossible.
The General Secretary of the Order, Francisco Javier Tello, has sent a note from Rome to all the communities requesting “special prayers from all our ministries for all those affected in these lands so dear to the Order”. In the same text he reminded that “the Order has a bank account for collecting, from all over the world, funds destined for the victims”. The account details are the following:
Iban: IT50X0200805134000101559404
Swift: UNCRITM1731
Titular: Curia Generalizia. Fondo sociale
Catastrophe
Haiyan ripped through central Philippines on its way to Vietnam. It sowed death and destruction over the Philippine islands of Samar, Leyte, Negros, Cebu, Panay, Palawan and Mindoro, among others. It has seriously affected 36 of the 80 provinces of the country and some 4 million people, of whom some 800,000 have been rendered homeless.
Tacloban City (pop. 220,000), capital of Leyte Province, has been laid waste. Being a coastal city, it bore the brunt of a storm surge that sent walls of water, some 5 meters high or more, through its streets. For Tacloban, Haiyan wreaked tsunami-like effects: felling buildings, toppling trees and electric posts, wrecking cars… The airport is totally destroyed and commercial traffic has been closed. The dead are numbered in the thousands: and in other places, where reports are only starting to come in, there could be more. The cathedral of Palo, metropolitan see of Leyte, whose origins trace back to 1596, could have also been destroyed.
Waiting for information
To the southwest of the provincial capital of Tacloban lies the town of Alang-alang, pop. 50,000. Its Colegio de la Santísima Trinidad is the only ministry the Augustinian Recollect family has in the island of Leyte. It is administered by the Augustinian Recollect Sisters, a Philippine-born congregation that originiated in early 18th century around the shrine of our Lady of Carmel, or San Sebastian, in Manila. Their members total 250 sisters distributed in 36 communities in the Philippines and 4 abroad. 
The Augustinian Recollects are waiting for news about them, their relatives and the many friars and formands that hail from Leyte island, and the victims in general. From Colombia, where he is presiding over the chapter of that province, Prior General Fr. Miguel Miro, communicated with Philippine superior Fr. Lauro Larlar, expressing his solidarity and that of the Order, even as he asked for information about the communities and the families of the religious. He also informed that financial help was coming through a bank account that had been opened after the earthquake. Finally, he closed with a prayer for the victims, for whom the provincial chapter in Colombia he is presiding over was also offering prayers.
From earthquake to typhoon
The Recollect social action front in the Philippines is headed by the Commission on Social and Ecological Concerns, which was attending to the victims of the October 15 earthquake when the typhoon struck. While Haiyan was landing its first blows on the Philippine archipelago between 6 and 8 November, the commission was distributing aid in Bohol.
On 6 November, the commission published its last message, assuring that it would continue to share the “Recollect spirit of rebuilding communities”. “Many of our brothers and sisters in Bohol – said the message – are still living in tents and are in need food for daily sustenance and construction materials to rebuild their homes. With your help, we are participating to uplift and to rebuild the lives of those affected”.
Details cannot yet be provided on the destruction caused by Haiyan on the Philippines. A few reports are trickling in. We know that the boat “Saint Ezekiel Moreno” used by our mission in Casian island in northern Palawan has been seriously damaged. We are also told that Coron, a past mission area of the Recollects in the Calamian archipelago, also in north Palawan, has been devastated.
Surely, many more tents, much more food and material aid of every kind would be needed; and much more solidarity would be needed to uplift spirits and rebuild communities.