Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda — Humanitarian Work — Medium...Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Southern...

Gisli Olafsson in Humanitarian Work · 5 min read

TyphoonHaiyan/YolandaNetHope Situation Report 1 — 2013-11-08

Situation

IMAGE COURTESY NOAA

Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda — Humanitarian Work — Medium https://medium.com/humanitarian-work/48ea790d39fa

1 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda), one of thestrongest typhoons this year, continues to maintainstrength as it passes over the Philippines. Its made initiallandfall just before 5 a.m. local time on Friday in Guiuantown, Eastern Samar, about 650 kilometers southeast ofManila. Due to the geographical nature of the area, it hasmade numerous landfalls after that, not losing much ofits strength.

It is estimated that at time of landfall sustained windsreached speeds of up to 315 kph and gusts blew as fast as379 kph, making it the strongest typhoon to ever makelandfall.

Filipino residents sleep on the floor at a gymnasium turned into an evacuationcenter in Sorsogon City, Bicol region, Philippines, on Nov. 7. (Image courtesy of


2 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

Before landfall, authorities had evacuated 151,910families, or 748,572 persons. These people are stayingin 664 evacuation centers across 31 provinces, 32 cities,and 181 municipalities. A total of 18 million people areestimated to be affected by the typhoon. A total of 3deaths have been reported so far, mainly due toelectrocution. But the death toll was expected to risewith authorities unable to immediately contact theworst affected areas.

The typhoon was accompanied by torrential rainfall,violent winds and dangerous storm surges. Heavy rainsof 20mm/hour extended out for an area 400 km wide,

USA Today)

People stand at the pier as Super Typhoon Haiyan smashes into the island of Bacalod(Image courtesy of AFP/Getty)


3 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

increasing fears of landslides and flash floods. A stormsurge as high as 15 feet was recorded in Tacloban.

One particularly vulnerable area in Haiyan’s path is thecentral island of Bohol, the epicentre of a 7.1-magnitudeearthquake last month that killed 222 people and where350,000 people are still living in temporary shelters.

Access to the affected area is limited due to damagedroads and fallen trees. The main sea and airports remainclosed. Humanitarian partners reported that the airportin Tacloban City suffered some damages.

The typhoon is expected to leave Philippines over theweekend, heading out towards the China Sea, where itmay gain strength before reaching Vietnam.

Typhoon Haiyan as it passed over the Philippines — Image courtesy of NOAA


4 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

General CoordinationThe UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC)together with the Asia-Pacific HumanitarianPartnership, Télécoms Sans Frontière and MapActionarrived in the Philippines to assist the government andthe UN Humanitarian Country Team in establishingcoordination hubs and performing initial assessments.Similarly, the ASEAN Emergency Rapid AssessmentTeam deployed its members to support coordination andemergency telecommunication.

A joint humanitarian assessment is being organized byUNDAC and teams will be deployed to the field over theweekend. Once the results of these joint rapidassessments come in, a better overview of the situationwill be available.

To augment data from the joint rapid needs assessment,the Digital Humanitarian Network has been activated tosupport the humanitarian response. Triangulated resultswill be geo-tagged and shared to support theassessment.

Telecommunication SituationThe telecommunication provider Globe reports that 20%of their network in Visayas region has been disrupted,particularly in the provinces of Biliran, Cebu, EasternSamar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Southern Leyte, WesternSamar and Iloilo. Around 6% of their network inMindanao has been disrupted, particularly in the


5 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

provinces of Camiguin, Dinagat Islands and SurigaodelNorte.

The telecommunication provider Smart reportsdisruption in the provinces of Eastern Samar, Leyte(with totall loss of service in Tacloban and Ormoc), andin parts of Northern Cebu. Latest reports indicate thatservice in Ormoc is being restored.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and ManagementCouncil (NDRRMC) reports no cell phone signals inRegions VII & VIII and that communication isinterrupted in 24 municipalities in Northern Cebu.Furthermore, they report power interruptions in thefollowing provinces and municipalities in regions IV-B,V, VII, and VIII:

San Francisco, Camotes, Cebu

Toorijos and Buenavista, Mariduque

Naujan, Oriental Mindoro

Bicol Region — Intermittent power

Parts of Danao City, and Municipality of Tuburan,Cebu

Albay, Masbate, Cataduanes, parts of Camarines Sur& Sorsogon

Leyte, Easter Samar


6 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

Camiguin

The Global Emergency Telecommunication Cluster ispreparing for a possible activation of the clusterfollowing a request from the Government of Philippinesto the UN Humanitarian Country Team to providesupport in restoring communication services. An ETCCoordinator is being deployed to the Philippines onSaturday. The cluster is also looking at deployingtelecommunication equipment if needed.

Télécoms Sans Frontiérs (TSF) deployed a team to thearea before the storm. They will be working closely withUN OCHA and Smart to provide telecommunicationservices to response organizations and affectedcommunities. In collaboration with Smart, they will alsobe leveraging the Vodafone Instant Network solution tohelp restore communication services in the worstaffected areas.

NetHope Member ResponseThe following NetHope member organizations arecurrently responding or planning to respond:

CARE

Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

ChildFund International

Direct Relief


7 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

Heifer

International Federation of Red Cross / Red Crescent(IFRC)

MercyCorps

Oxfam

Plan International

Save the Children

World Vision International

NetHope is identifying the ICT needs of its members andtheir local implementation partners and coordinatingwith its member and partners to formulate responseplans as the needs become more clear.

NetHope is reaching out to its supporters to mobilize theresources needed to support the emergency relief andrecovery operations of our member organizations.Individuals are invited to support NetHope’s work bydonating to our Emergency Response Fund.Corporations, foundations, and other organizationsinterested in supporting our efforts either financially orthrough in-kind donation, are asked to contact ouremergency group directly at emergency at NetHopedot org.

Other Useful Information Sources


8 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

National Disaster Risk Reduction ManagementCouncil

Latest situation report from UN OCHA

Crisis Map from Digital Humanitarian network

Official Gazette of Philippines

Humanity Road — Situation Report

Google Crisis Map

Google Person Finder

MapAction Map Catalog

Hashtags: YolandaPH, #Haiyan, #ReliefPH (aid suchas evacuation centers), #RescuePH (use to requestrescue), #floodsPH (use to report flooding)

Suggest a link for further reading

Recommend

WRITTEN BY

Gisli OlafssonEmergency ResponseDirector - NetHope.Former ICE-SAR TeamLeader. UNDAC


9 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

Member. Want tochange how wemanage CrisisInformation.

Thanks to:Paige Dearing

Published November 8,2013

(hide)

PUBLISHED IN

Humanitarian WorkArticles about thingsrelated to humanitarianwork

Follow

Read next

Raising EntrepreneursFostering the entrepreneurial spirit in your kidsJake Johnson · 9 min read


10 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM


11 of 11 11/8/13 11:33 AM

Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda — Humanitarian Work — Medium...Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Southern...

Documents

Transcript of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda — Humanitarian Work — Medium...Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Southern...