A US marine (left) carries an injured boy who survived the wrath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the central coastal city of Tacloban, as they disembark from a military cargo plane that flew them out of the city to Manila.

AFP/Tacloban

In the withered heart of the Philippines’ typhoon disaster zone, defeated survivors abandoned hopes yesterday of a dignified burial for their loved ones and tried to flee aboard military planes.

Four days after Super Typhoon Haiyan destroyed entire towns across the central Philippines, leaving more than 10,000 people dead, the worst-hit islands of Leyte and Samar remained largely cut off.

Countless survivors remained trapped in their devastated communities, with roads, bridges and airports destroyed, while paralysed telephone networks and lost mobile phones meant most could not inform relatives outside they were safe.

A lucky few were being taken out for free by Philippine military cargo planes flying in and out of the barely functioning airport at Tacloban, the devastated capital of Leyte province where most of the deaths are believed to have occurred.

Maria Adelfa Jomerez, 58, was one of hundreds of people gathered at the airport hoping to hitch a ride out of their apocalypse, willing to walk away from the bodies of her son, his wife and their four-year-old son.

Jomerez said she wanted to fly to Manila, about 600 kilometres away, to join her daughter. She left her grandson’s corpse under a tarpaulin at a devastated city hotel, where other bodies were being temporarily stored, while the bodies of her son and daughter-in-law were in a funeral home.

“I asked the mortuary to give my son and his wife proper coffins, but they told me their staff had not reported for work and that some of them were probably dead as well,” Jomerez said. “There are no vehicles to transport them to the cemetery anyway... I would prefer that they not be buried in a mass grave, but I cannot do anything about that.”

Like the others at the ruined passenger terminal of the airport, Jomerez could do nothing but wait in the rain without any guarantee of getting on a flight.

The crowd included a group of children with handwritten signs hanging from their necks, saying “survivor”, placed by officials to ensure they received priority handling in the queue.

In front of the crowd about 20 Philippine air force troops with rifles guarded the tarmac, preventing the people from rushing the planes that arrived intermittently, bringing relief supplies, aid workers and journalists.

About 150 people were able to get on one plane, including elderly and injured people in wheelchairs, but most of those waiting were not optimistic of getting out.