Melbourne father missing - The Age

Australian man Greg Cummins (middle) and his daughter, Ellie (left). Photo: Peter Cox

Melbourne relatives of an Australian man missing after typhoon Haiyan are have been scanning social media and remain hopeful he survived.

They last heard from retired builder Greg Cummins, 60, who lives in Guiuan with his Filippino wife, Ryla, at 7pm Melbourne time on Thursday.

The couple run a small hotel and restaurant in the coastal town the was hit badly by the storm that has killed tens of thousands.

Mr Cummins' brother-in-law Dane Walker, of Kew, said he and his partner, Mr Cummins' daughter Ellie Cummins, 30, were "trying to stay positive" but also very worried.

He said Mr Cummins was born in Melbourne but spent most of his life in Cairns as a builder before marrying Ryla and moving to the Philippines about six years ago. He has two daughters: Ellie, in Melbourne, and Jo, who lives in New Zealand.

In Guiuan, in eastern Samar, south of Tecloban, Mr Cummins and his wife run a 14-room hotel, bar and restaurant called Misty Blue Boathouse. "It's right on the water so it would have been directly hit. One of the rooms sits over the water".

In their adjacent two-storey concrete house with a thatched roof, they also care for a group of local children from destitute families, with food and shelter.

"It was the first area to get hit and it was the hardest to get hit," said Mr Walker. He said Mr Cummins had last rung on Thursday about noon, Melbourne time, and texted them until about 7pm. "There's been no word yet. We've been on social media we've been contacting members of parliament all over the world."

He said Filipino reporters in the area said "there's mass casualties, mass graves", and it had taken 16 hours to get from Guiuan to Tecloban in a trip that usually takes three hours.

"We've been over there, we know Tecloban, and to see what's happened on TV, it's shocking, it's unimaginable, really."

He said one reporter filming on Guiuan told them on Twitter after they sent a photo of Mr Cummins that he saw and photographed a man resembling Mr Cummins on the Saturday.

"He's going to look back through his footage and photographs and ask his team if that's true. He cant' confirm it yet. He is quite unique because he is one of the only Australian or white people in the town.

"He built his house with typhoons in mind, but nothing with this kind of power."

"We're up and down," Mr Walker said. "We hear good news, we hear bad news. we're just trying to stay positive. He was prepared as he could be. He stocked up and food and water beforehand. In his restaurant he's got food and water ready to go, he closed off all the windows. But we've seen detailed photos from people on the the ground now and it's just shocking. We don't know."

"They get typhoons all the time and usually he's cool and calm and tries to play it down but this time he was telling us he was quite concerned and he was preparing for it. He knew it was going to be big, he was watching the weather. He knew it was coming and tried to prepare as well as possible.

"We pretty much haven't slept trying to stay on top of news. Social media's been the best thing. We've had help from people around the world sharing information and trying to help us and we've been helping other people, there's lots of good people out there when the times are tough, it makes you appreciate people in this world.

"It's been tough. we've had little bits of positive informaiton, and seen photos of people on the streets who've survived in worse conditions and less structurally sound housing so we're fairly hopeful, we're just trying to wait and see.

"But it's pretty hard to remian strong when you see death toll and people in streets lying across the road, but we'll remain positive."