video transcript

After the devastating Typhoon Bopha tore through the southern Philippines, the country is only just beginning to take stock of what has happened. The typhoon killed nearly 400 people and left at least as many missing. Survivors were recovering in hospitals and temporary shelters. This woman has not seen her two children nor her mother since the typhoon struck. (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) TYPHOON SURVIVOR LISA ROSANEN: "I held my two children when a tree crashed onto our home. We were trapped beneath the tree and I heard my kids crying 'Mama'. My hand slipped and that's the last time I saw them." While some victims were crushed by fallen trees, others were dragged away by rushing waters or killed in landslides. In the Davao Oriental province more than a hundred people died. Some family members here buried their dead in a mass grave. Officials in the southern Philippines are appealing for aid for survivors, with over 180,000 people staying in evacuation shelters.