Tacloban: Survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan prayed for their dead loved ones in the devoutly Catholic Philippines on Wednesday as they commemorated the 10th anniversary of a storm that killed more than 6,000 people.
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Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded, unleashed winds of up to 315 kilometres (195 miles) an hour and whipped up tsunami-like waves that devastated central islands in the archipelago nation.
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Tacloban, the capital of Leyte province, bore the brunt of the storm's fury and was almost totally destroyed by five-metre-high storm surges that crashed over mostly poor coastal communities.
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Nene Natividad prays for her 6 children whose names are engraved at a memorial wall for Haiyan victims. | People returned a decade later to Tacloban's seaside convention centre - which was used as an evacuation site during Haiyan - for a Catholic mass to remember the victims and pay tribute to those who helped rebuild the city.
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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (left) attended the ceremony along with members of his Cabinet, foreign diplomats and survivors of the storm.
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Mellisa Bagro lights candles at the grave of her two children. | "Ten years have gone by, and yet the memory of this tragedy remains indelible in our hearts and in our thoughts," Marcos told the audience.
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He said the Philippines - typically affected by more than 20 major storms a year - needed to build "stronger and more resilient communities" in the face of climate change, which scientists have long warned is making storms more powerful.
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"Be assured that the government is always striving to ensure that such tragedies of this magnitude will be avoided and will be adapted to," he said. "We must make climate change a vital component of our national policies."
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Stormy clouds hung over the city of around 280,000 people on Wednesday, adding to the sombre atmosphere of the anniversary.
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About 6,300 people were killed by Haiyan, and a decade later more than a thousand are still missing. More than four million people were left homeless.
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A few people holding umbrellas for the occasional shower of rain visited a cemetery in Tacloban where hundreds of people killed in Haiyan are buried.
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Residents left flowers and lit candles were at a memorial plaque with the names of victims, or sat next to one of the white crosses marking a loved one's final resting place.
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