Moment of hope in the Philippines typhoon disaster

More than 10,000 people are thought to have died in the monster typhoon that struck the Philippines this week, but it's just one life that has given the country a moment of hope that they will recover from the utter devastation.

Baby Bea Joy was born amongst the rubble in the nearly-destroyed airport compound that was turned into a makeshift medical centre. Her bed is a piece of dirty plywood. She is surrounded by dirt, broken glass and twisted metal.

Still, this baby is a sad reminder that life does go on, even after such a massive loss.

Mum Emily Sagalis cried tears of joy after giving birth to her 'miracle baby' and named the child after her own mother who is one of the 10,000 suspected dead.  "She is so beautiful. I will name her Bea Joy in honour of my mother, Beatriz,'' Mrs Sagalis, 21, said after the birth. "She is my miracle. I had thought I would die with her still inside me when high waves came and took us all away."

The giant waves generated by Super Typhooon-Haivan obliterated homes near Tacloban city, the capital of Leyte province, one of the worst-hit areas. The typhoon also caused massive destruction on other islands across central Philippines.

Super Typhoon-Havian is officially the countries worst recorded natural disaster.

Just one face of the tragedy is Daisy Nemeth, who has lost more than 30 family members in the disaster. She's showing this family photo to everyone she can, desperately searching for her loved ones, who are still missing and feared dead. She has been searching for them via social media for three days, unable to fly to Tacloban because she is six months pregnant and mum to toddler twins.

"It's my uncle, my mom's brother is missing. All his children, his wife, everyone. My cousin is missing with her six children, they range in age from 9 to 19. Then I have many, many other missing cousins. But these are the ones we're the closest with and they're nowhere to be found," Nemeth told CNN.

Facebook is being used by family members to find each other. Nemeth is on it several times a day hoping for messages from her missing family.

"I've seen all the pictures and I'm scouring the pictures but I can't even recognize the neighbourhoods," she said. "According to some Facebook groups, the area my uncle was in, it isn't even there any more."

To make a contribution to the victims of Super Typhoon-Haivan visit the Oxfam Australia website here.