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Y It Happened: Learning from Typhoon Yolanda

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It took only a few hours on 8 November, 2013 for typhoon (TY) Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) to obliterate towns and cities in the Visayas region, drastically altering lives and reshaping thoughts about disasters and how these impact on the country’s preparedness capacity.

It will take time for the stark reminders of that calamitous event to completely vanish from a people’s collective memory even as the process of healing and recovery has begun.

Part of that process was the need to grapple with the realities of what really happened on the ground and the lessons that could be mined from the experiences of people and communities battered by the typhoon and those who responded to the aid of a stricken land.

One particular articulation of this process was the decision of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) together with other government agencies and the regional offices of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) to set in motion this project to reflect from the experience with the end in view of improving the disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) practices, systems, and policies in the country.

It specifically aimed to: 1) document the Yolanda experience (including good practices and/or case stories) using the four thematic areas as a general framework; 2) identify gaps under the existing DRRM set-up, mechanisms, and policies vis-à-vis RA 10121 and the National DRRM Framework Plan; 3) extract key lessons which will serve as inputs to the recovery plan and possible revisions needed in the existing set of DRRM policies, plans, and programs in the country; and 4) identify and share key learnings and challenges with the wider international DRRM community, particularly in the ASEAN.

The concept of the project called, “Learning from Typhoon Yolanda” pointed out that, ‘The impact of the disaster highlighted a number of gaps in the existing DRRM (Disaster Risk Reduction and Management) system and set of capacities from the national to the local DRRM councils and related institutions and/or organizations.’

It further said, ‘With this and other typhoons of similar strength, key stakeholders, especially members of the local and international communities, civil society organizations, local government units, and national government agencies need to reflect on what happened and identify how best they can work together and build back forward, not only in the areas hit by Yolanda, but more importantly, in the institutional mechanisms, policies, and programs so that the country can better reduce the risks of disasters to its people, especially the most vulnerable.’

The framework and methodology in putting together this modest volume, which were anchored on the four thematic areas of the DRRM law: Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Rehabilitation and Recovery, underlines the comprehensive scope of the project despite the challenge of a short time frame.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Framework (NDRRMF), through the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP), the country will have “safer, adaptive, and disaster resilient communities towards sustainable development” to be achieved through the four mutually reinforcing thematic areas earlier mentioned.

The data-gathering process for this project essentially adhered to the proposition that each thematic area has its own long-term goal which, when put together, will lead to the attainment of the country’s DRRM goal.

The research was also guided by the following definitions of the four thematic areas in relation to priorities:

Prevention and Mitigation provides key strategic actions that give importance to activities revolving around hazards evaluation and mitigation, vulnerability analyses, identification of hazard-prone areas, and mainstreaming DRRM into development plans. It is based on sound and scientific analysis of the different underlying factors which contribute to the vulnerability of the people and eventually, their risks and exposure to hazards and disasters.

Preparedness are the key strategic actions that give importance to activities revolving around community awareness and understanding, contingency planning, conduct of local drills, and the development of a national disaster response plan. Risk-related information coming from the prevention and mitigation aspect is necessary for the preparedness activities to be responsive to the needs of the people and to the situation on the ground. Also, the policies, budget, and institutional mechanisms established under the prevention and mitigation priority area will be further enhanced through capacity-building activities and development of coordination mechanisms. Through these, coordination, complementation, and interoperability of work in DRRM operations and essential services will be ensured. Behavioral change created by the preparedness aspect was eventually measured by how well people responded to the disasters. At the frontlines of preparedness are the local government units, local chief executives, and communities.

Response refers to activities during the actual response operations: from needs assessment and search and rescue to relief operations and early recovery. The success and realization of this priority rely heavily on the completion of the activities under both prevention and mitigation and preparedness aspects including, among others, the coordination and communication mechanisms. On-the-ground partnerships and vertical and horizontal coordination work among key stakeholders will contribute to successful disaster response operations and its smooth transition towards early and long-term recovery work.

Rehabilitation and Recovery cover areas like employment and livelihoods, infrastructure and lifeline facilities, and housing and resettlement, among others. These are recovery efforts done when people are already outside of the evacuation centers.

Although the stories that had emerged from the datagathering process did not cover the fourth thematic area given the limited coverage of the research, a number of areas demonstrated initial gains in rehabilitation and recovery

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Experiences with Typhoon Yolanda: The voices of young survivors revealed

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Five years later, Yolanda survivors light the way for the rest of the country – and the world

Today, we remember the over 7,000 people whose lives were lost when exactly five years ago, Super Typhoon Yolanda struck central Philippines.

We remember the countless lives and communities that were forever changed by the super typhoon.

But today, too, we honor the millions of Yolanda survivors who remind us what can be done to not only survive but even thrive in the midst of adversity.

There is the small, off-grid community of Sulu-an Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar — the first community hit by Typhoon Yolanda — beckoning aspirations for a community that will be energized by the powers of the sun and the wind.

It is the local women’s group Sulong Sulu-an (Forward Sulu-an) holding Zumba dance classes with the help of solar-powered speakers, baking bread under solar-powered lights, going door-to-door asking neighbors how much energy do they need to power their households and island barangay, and setting up their own solar home systems that show us what climate resiliency truly means.

Guiuan’s Bantay Dagat (Sea Patrol) is constructing a solar-powered guardhouse to protect its marine reserves, which are showing signs of recovery from the devastation of the typhoon. It is their townsfolk rediscovering all the ways to cook and eat their indigenous rootcrop, the palawan, which they found to be a reliable substitute for rice especially in the aftermath of Yolanda. We also honor today 300 Solar Scholars mostly from Yolanda-affected areas — Samar, Leyte, Eastern Samar, and Iloilo — as well as communities from Rizal, Laguna, and Cagayan who have also been affected by other typhoons.

They are ordinary citizens as well as community leaders, local government officials, and local development workers who are now integrating community disaster preparedness and response interventions with renewable energy solutions.

Having experienced firsthand how difficult it is to seek outside help without electricity, the Solar Scholars learned how to power their community command posts, evacuation centers, and health centers with TekPaks, portable solar-powered devices designed and built by Yolanda survivors, to provide immediate light and charging needs in times of emergencies.

Today is also a day to honor the members of the RE-Serve Humanitarian Corps, a volunteer group mostly composed of Yolanda survivors who are trained to provide solar power to humanitarian and emergency responders.

Together, the Solar Scholars and members of the RE-Serve Humanitarian Corps are lighting the way in harnessing renewable energy not just for emergency response but for their communities’ development. They continue to pay it forward by training other people affected by typhoons or dealing with the lack of electricity in their own communities.

Recently, twenty participants from Marabut, Samar and Tacloban were trained as Solar Scholars by a pool of women from the RE-Serve Corps and former Solar Scholar graduates. This latest batch of Solar Scholars, most of whom are also women, led the evacuation drill of the coastal town of Marabut two weeks ago.

“Women have an important role in lighting up our homes and our communities. We have proven in our organization that solar power is useful not only in times of disasters like Yolanda but even in everyday life,” said Lorna Ortilla dela Peña, president of the Marabut Women’s Federation.

A previous Solar Scholar trainee, she was one of the facilitators of the latest Solar Scholars training.

“Houses in upland areas with no electricity still heavily rely on their solar lamps, and everyone uses them during brownouts. I wanted to learn more about solar power to help people in my community and I am glad to pass on my knowledge to other women,” she added.

Last month, two RE-Serve members who are Yolanda survivors led a Solar Scholars training of Cagayan locals affected by Typhoon Mangkhut (Ompong).

“As a survivor of Super Typhoon Yolanda, I was prepared to help survivors of Ompong... I thought at first that they would be more prepared than us because they experienced Typhoon Lawin just two years ago,” according to Glinly Alvero, a RE-Serve Humanitarian Corps volunteer and ICSC technical officer.

“But some areas lacked the basic preparations and knowledge regarding disaster response. I am quite saddened because this means that the whole country is still ill prepared,” he added, while lamenting the limited options for communities affected by Mangkhut.

The people of Suluan, Nanay Lorna, Glinly, and several other Yolanda survivors whom we have had the privilege of knowing and working with are fully aware that they remain vulnerable not just to extreme weather events such as Yolanda but also to the creeping impacts of climate change such as increasing temperatures, sea level rise, and ocean acidification.

“Even if no one talks about climate change we feel its effects here,” said Jocelyn Naing, a barangay health worker from Suluan. “This summer the water in the well tasted like the sea,” Socorro Quiminales, a mother also from Suluan, told us.

Rene Basilenes, a fisherfolk from Suluan, told us it was harder to catch fish nowadays unlike in previous years. His fellow fisherfolk Virgilio Loyola said he has noticed how the seawaters inch ever closer to their homes.

Today, we honor their and other survivors’ grit, resilience, and generosity of spirit. We honor their will to survive and thrive on the frontlines of a warming world.

Today, we recommit ourselves to helping communities like theirs adapt to the impacts of climate change and transition to cleaner and more reliable energy. — LA, GMA News

Denise M. Fontanilla is the associate for policy advocacy of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, a climate and energy policy group.

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The Typhoon “Yolanda” Experience of Leyte, Philippines and the Recovery Strategy of Eastern Visayas State University

More than the great casualty incidence, Typhoon “Yolanda” rendered nearly 200 thousand families totally homeless and brought damage to both public and private resources and assets resulting to infrastructure gridlocks and economic setbacks. The main objective of Leyte’s Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan is to bring back the economic and social conditions of the people, at least, at pre-typhoon level and a higher level of disaster resiliency. The sectors include outputs on infrastructure and utilities, housing, health facilities, services, livelihood assistance in agriculture and marginal sectors, and employment opportunities, and support to social welfare services and the environmental, gender and development and the overall poverty alleviation cross cutting themes. For Eastern Visayas State University, it needs at least $18 million to finance mostly the construction of temporary shelter/classrooms, infrastructure restoration/repairs in all campuses, structural retrofitting, equipment procurement and debris/waste materials management. The proposed facilities will entail the integration of disaster-resilient character, with a focus on the functionality, aesthetics, environment-friendly and sustainability of designs.

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Livelihood and vulnerability in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda: lessons of community and resilience

• Original Paper
• Open access
• Published: 13 May 2020
• Volume 103 , pages 211–230, ( 2020 )

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• Pauline Eadie   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7866-2720 2 ,
• Maria Ela Atienza 1 &
• May Tan-Mullins   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0236-5145 3  

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Livelihood strategies that are crafted in ‘extra-ordinary’ post-disaster conditions should also be able to function once some semblance of normalcy has resumed. This article aims to show that the vulnerability experienced in relation to Typhoon Yolanda was, and continues to be, directly linked to inadequate livelihood assets and opportunities. We examine the extent to which various livelihood strategies lessened vulnerability post-Typhoon Yolanda and argue that creating conditions under which disaster survivors have the freedom to pursue sustainable livelihood is essential in order to foster resilience and reduce vulnerability against future disasters. We offer suggestions to improve future relief efforts, including suggestions made by the survivors themselves. We caution against rehabilitation strategies that knowingly or unknowingly, resurrect pre-disaster vulnerability. Strategies that foster dependency, fail to appreciate local political or ecological conditions or undermine cooperation and cohesion in already vulnerable communities will be bound to fail. Some of the livelihood strategies that we observed post-Typhoon Yolanda failed on some or all of these points. It is important for future policy that these failings are addressed.

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1 Introduction

Livelihood can be threatened by a complex array of issues such as disasters and wars, which could deprive households of productive assets and access to markets, and potentially disrupt livelihood related mutual support mechanisms that often exist in poor communities. In this article, we argue that strategies to restore livelihood after a disaster must be devised so that they can function effectively under ‘ordinary’, as opposed to ‘extraordinary’ conditions (or times). Ordinary and extraordinary are not polar opposites; they are points on a shifting and complex matrix of socio-economic life and the impact of disasters. Ordinary conditions may include, but are not limited to, exposure to various anticipated risks such as seasonal storms and flooding, inadequate shelter, discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, age or gender, limited livelihood related capability or governmental inadequacy. These are at times structural and consistent conditions that could happen on a regular basis. Disasters such as super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) are considered to be extraordinary. They are extreme in terms of their sheer scale and severity, are unusually disruptive and result in unanticipated impacts.

In the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda thousands of aid workers arrived in the disaster zone and millions of dollars in foreign aid poured into the local economy in support of the humanitarian relief and rehabilitation effort. Many agencies stayed for up to 2 years, some for longer, creating new opportunities for business, investment and local employment but demand also increased for local goods and service, inflating prices and creating jobs (Secret Aid Worker 2015 ). However, when aid agencies move on, and the post-disaster economic bubble Footnote 1 has run its course, a return to socio-economic ‘normalcy’ may be suboptimal, impossible or hard to quantify. Nevertheless, livelihood strategies created in the aftermath of a disaster should still be viable in ‘ordinary’ circumstances. For livelihood initiatives to be truly sustainable, they should be capable of reducing vulnerability over the longer term and making the ‘ordinary’ better.

Human vulnerability is a multi-dimensional and dynamic condition. Age, gender, disability, sexuality, ethnic difference, locality and levels of wealth can all influence how vulnerable people are to specific threats and how these threats are perceived and experienced. Poor individuals or communities may not, on the face of it, appear insecure as they are functioning and their vulnerability may be latent. However, natural hazards can expose this latent vulnerability that poor communities live with on a daily basis. When this exposure is sudden, as in the case of major typhoons or earthquakes, the impact of the event dictates that the event itself and the subsequent relief effort is presented in ‘extraordinary’ terms.

This was the case when Typhoon Yolanda struck the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines on 8 November 2013. It was one of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall with wind speeds up to 315 kms per hour and a strong surge that reached six metres in places. More than 6000 people died, 1785 were reported missing and 28,626 were injured (National Operational Assessment of Hazards, n.d.). The total number of people affected by Typhoon Yolanda, in relation to their livelihood, environmental and food security, was approximately 16 million. The livelihoods of 5.9 million people were ‘destroyed, lost or disrupted’ (OCHA/UNEP 2014 : 5) by Typhoon Yolanda.

Building on the earlier work of Cannon et al. ( 2003 ), we argue that post-disaster livelihood strategies that are informed by a central reference point of vulnerability (during the ‘ordinary’ times) could help build more resilient futures. We argue that ex ante livelihood ‘buffers’ (Marschke and Berkes 2006 ; Scoones 1998 ) could help reduce vulnerability and that these buffers should be mainstreamed into disaster risk reduction (DRR). We have chosen to focus on livelihood because this issue was central to the rehabilitation efforts post-Typhoon Yolanda and is more broadly a key driver of sustainable post-disaster recovery. In connection with the other related literature, livelihood is one of two (the other being housing) aspects of recovery that ‘play a critical role in the perception of affected individuals about their general recovery after disasters’ (Taheri Tafti and Tomlinson 2015 : 168).

The communities examined in this article are all located in the adjacent Local Government Units (LGUs) of Palo, Tanauan and Tacloban City, in the Eastern Visayas region (also known as Region VIII) of the Philippines. This region bore the brunt of Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013. Governance in the Philippines is devolved through a system of LGUs, namely provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays (the smallest political-administrative units) run by elected officials. LGUs have various powers that are devolved from the national government under the 1991 Local Government Code (Brillantes 1998 ). Palo is a third class municipality and Tanauan is designated second class; government classification is based on income. Tacloban is a highly urbanised city with a population of over 242,089 in 2015 (Philippines Statistics Authority 2016 ) and an annual income over 50 million PHP (constant price using 1991 as base year).

The Visayas islands are home to some of the poorest provinces in the Philippines Footnote 2 . The three areas were chosen as the focus of this study as they were at the centre of a massive and prolonged international relief effort. They are not conflict zones; however, many coastal dwellers lived ‘close to the subsistence level and [were] thus structurally positioned at the edge of socio-economic disaster’ (Siar 2003 : 272). In this case, socio-economic disaster was triggered by a ‘natural disaster’, Typhoon Yolanda. An assessment of the extent to which relief strategies reduced or increased vulnerability via livelihood, is one useful way of testing whether disaster relief strategies really managed to foster resilience after Typhoon Yolanda. As vulnerability is understood and experienced in many different ways, this article draws on a wide range of primary survey and interview data gathered in our chosen communities.

This article first outlines our data gathering strategies and elaborates on vulnerability as a conceptual framework. We then summarise the different concepts such as livelihood, resilience, disasters and vulnerability and their relation to each other. We argue that the vulnerability experienced in relation to Typhoon Yolanda was, and continues to be, directly linked to inadequate livelihood assets and opportunities. The next section examines the pre-disaster vulnerability that existed during ‘ordinary’ conditions. This is followed by an assessment of how post-disaster interventions during ‘extraordinary’ circumstances contributed, or did not contribute, to resilience and lessening of vulnerability. The final section summarises our findings and we conclude by cautioning against rehabilitation strategies that knowingly or unknowingly, resurrect pre-disaster vulnerability. Strategies that foster dependency, fail to appreciate local political or ecological conditions or undermine cooperation and cohesion in already vulnerable communities will be bound to fail.

2 Data gathering

In this article, we use a comparative and mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative data. Evidence is drawn mostly from 20 barangays of comparable size across three LGUs: eight in Tacloban City, six in Palo and six in Tanauan. The uneven sample size across the LGUs relates to the differing size, and hence number of barangays, within each LGU. Assessing post-disaster activity across space at the barangay level allowed us to compare what strategies worked better or worse in similarly impacted, but different, localities in terms of post-disaster resilience building. This is important as community resilience building is best understood from the bottom up in order to avoid ‘disaster management interventions [that] have a propensity to follow a paternalistic mode that can lead to the skewing of activities towards supply rather than demand’ (Manyena 2006 : 438).

Coastal geography alone dictated our choice of barangays Footnote 3 , and we had no prior assumptions about the degree of social cohesion or effective leadership and capacity building within each barangay. This paper is based on the premise that there was great value in information drawn directly from local ‘communities’ that had lived experience of the disaster and its aftermath. We treat communities as being a group of people living within the geographically and politically defined area of a barangay. These communities are linked by family ties and embedded interaction between neighbours, especially where populations are stable. However, such communities do not operate in isolation. Networks of social interaction and joint action that impacted upon these communities operated at a number of levels including locally, nationally and internationally. The idea of community is important as without ‘community participation, disaster relief often inadvertently rebuilds […] structures of vulnerability’ (Bhatt and Reynolds 2012 : 74).

Vulnerability is a material and social condition and, to a certain extent, subjective. Therefore, we aimed to gather a broad range of data on the material and social experience of rehabilitation as systematically as possible. We interviewed a sample of the population large enough to allow for the cross-checking of responses and conducted about 800 household surveys annually in 2015, 2016 and 2017. This allowed us to identify general trends in how the rehabilitation efforts were perceived and experienced across time and space and teased out the nuances of power relations between the different stakeholders. The data cited in this paper refers only to the survey responses that directly address livelihood. We instructed our fieldworkers to survey an equal balance of men and women; nevertheless, our respondents were predominately female: 61 per cent in 2015, 74.7 per cent in 2016 and 75 per cent in 2017. As our surveys were conducted during daylight hours this gender imbalance was indicative that it was predominantly women who were at home during the working day.

Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with a range of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders over 4 years from 2014 to 2018. We interviewed each barangay captain (or representative) and mayor annually for the duration of our project. Twenty-four focus group discussions with various sectors including women, the elderly, youth, persons with disabilities and mixed groups, across the three LGUs were held over 3 years. We also identified two families in each barangay, one most affected and one least affected, that were willing to be interviewed year on year. By selecting 20 most affected and 20 least affected families, we aimed to establish the factors that helped or hindered disaster recovery given their similar but perhaps different experiences. We asked every family the same questions. By interviewing 40 families in a semi-structured and systematic fashion, we aimed to go beyond mere anecdotal evidence.

The virtue of gathering evidence over time is that we were able to monitor first-hand the extent to which relief operations ameliorated the vulnerability of communities beyond the initial emergency phase. We were able to go back to the same communities and the same respondents to see whether their situation had improved or changed and what the primary obstacles were to their rehabilitation. We were also able to observe the shift in activity when many international aid agencies left and tease out the sustainability of these livelihood strategies in both extraordinary and ordinary conditions. The production of both quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data allowed us to compare quantitative trends with rich empirical data from interviews. Gathering data from a range of stakeholders allowed us to assess how livelihood strategies were both produced and applied and to compare the stated aims and objectives of the strategies with how they were actually experienced.

We also took note of the existing institutional governance structures. While the form of government is unitary, devolution was established in the Philippines via the 1991 Local Government Code (Republic Act No. 7160). The Code devolved wide-ranging responsibilities to LGUs, including disaster response and management (Atienza et al. 2019 ). Furthermore, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (Republic Act No. 10121), in setting up the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Framework as well as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), puts in the frontline both the national government and LGUs (Eadie 2019 : 93–94). LGUs are mandated to have their own local DRRM budgets, plans, and offices. The national DRRM framework also enables various government agencies at various levels not only to coordinate with each other but with civil society organizations as well as international and foreign bilateral agencies.

A consideration of the prevailing governance structures helps us to assess some of the institutional factors that affected the sustainability of the livelihood strategies introduced in the three areas that we studied. It is also useful to reflect on whether there were problems with the governance structures themselves or only in policy implementation.

3 Resilience, livelihood, disaster and vulnerability

Resilience has been debated across disciplines in physical/material and social terms. Footnote 4 The word resilience is derived from the Latin word resilio meaning to leap or spring back. It can be defined as ‘the capacity of any entity—an individual, a community, an organisation, of a natural system—to prepare for disruptions, to recover from shocks and stresses, and to adapt and grow from a disruptive experience’ (Rodin 2015 : 3). Resilience does not just relate to the ability to deflect and counter threats; it is also about physical and social adaptation. Therefore, resilience can be equated to capabilities. Ideally survivors should have the capabilities to reduce their own vulnerability and work towards a resilient future. Resilience may be subjective and ‘comparable disasters could generate quite different articulations of resilience from similarly affected communities’ (Eadie 2019 : 98). Vulnerability and resilience can also coexist. From the outside, vulnerable communities may look like their ability to take action is constrained but the various hardships faced on a daily basis can mean that resilience is inbuilt. People are used to coping with living in close proximity to each other, economic stress and environmental threats. Therefore, coping strategies and ‘psychological resilience’ (Usamah et al. 2014 : 187) are quickly activated during disasters.

Livelihood, as a means of resilience, needs to be understood in a framework of changing social, political, economic and environmental contexts (Davidson-Hunt and Berkes 2003 ; de Haan and Zoomers 2005 ; Delisle and Turner 2016 ). Indeed, the notion of livelihood itself should be seen in context: ‘livelihood is a larger, more universal and more useful concept for seeing what best to do, encompassing as it does for many of the poor so much more than the employment of a job, which for many is not and cannot be a reality’ (Chambers 1995 : 183). Livelihood is not just a salary or a job; it is about the various ways that individuals and communities sustain themselves. Livelihood is commonly defined as, ‘the capabilities, assets (both natural and social) and activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance capabilities and assets, both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base’ (Chambers and Conway 1992 : 7).

Livelihood is socially and ecologically situated. How intangible assets such as skills and social support, and tangible assets such as finance and ecological resources are accessed is an important determinant of livelihood (Bebbington 1999 ; Sok and Xu 2015 ). Many of the world’s poor secure a living via the creation of multiple strategies that cannot be quantified on the basis of income alone. The poor exist in conditions that are ‘local, complex, diverse and dynamic’ (Chambers 1995 : 173) and inevitably impact on the lived experience of the search for livelihood.

Livelihood decisions may involve meeting immediate needs even if this increases future vulnerability, e.g. going into debt, skipping education to go to work or engaging in unhealthy or dangerous work. These trade-offs have to be seen within the context that they are made and how people rationalise their own circumstances, ‘the constraints under which they make these decisions and the power relations at play’ (Bebbington 1999 : 2033). Wealth, access to credit and productive assets such as land (Borras and Franco 2005 ), institutional policy (Scoones 2009 : 176–183), human ingenuity, skills, training, equipment and social networks are important capability indicators. Issues such as gender (Angeles and Hill 2009 ; Gaillard et al. 2015 ; Siar 2003 ), disability (Tabuga and Mina 2011 ; Yamagata 2015 ), culture and social norms can also dictate how livelihood assets are accessed and utilised. The livelihood opportunities of women may be compromised because they are expected to take on unpaid care work that impact on their ‘share in the distribution of resources post-disaster because their productive and reproductive contributions remain undervalued, uncounted and unpaid’ (Tanyag 2018 : 566). These issues present us with a set of complex indicators that are not always easy to measure, isolate or replicate.

Livelihood activities play out in different ways in different places. Rural livelihoods are likely to involve a combination of ‘different activities in a complex bricolage or portfolio of activities’ (Scoones 2009 : 172) that are closely connected to the natural environment and the rhythm of the seasons. However, the focus on capabilities and assets in relation to shocks and stresses also translates to the urban environment. The variables that affect rural dwellers such as access to land, the depletion of open access resources such as fisheries, shelter and credit, skills and training and a government that can be held to account for the well-being of the population play out in different ways in the urban context, but they are still relevant.

In relation to shocks and stress Ian Scoones suggests that livelihood ‘buffers’ can be created if (a) livelihood resources are kept in reserve, (b) single and multiple livelihood activities can be diversified and realigned so that if a particular activity or complementary set of activities come under threat, alternative livelihood options are still available, (c) risk to livelihood is ‘pooled’ so the threats are minimised, and (d) resilient systems are built so that shocks and stresses have less impact (Scoones 1998 : 10). These strategies are laudable in relation to building sustainable livelihoods; however, such interventions are seldom easy in poor communities that may be functioning at a bare level of existence. Nevertheless, they are sound benchmarks against which vulnerability can be measured.

Such buffers are particularly important in areas prone to disasters and ‘sustainable livelihood’ approaches can provide a valuable opportunity for combining disaster reduction and development interventions in one unifying approach’ (Sanderson 2000 : 51). Sustainable livelihood approaches have typically focused on how human, social, physical, natural and financial capital can be ‘assessed in terms of their vulnerability to shocks and the institutional context in which they exist’ (Morse and MacNamara 2013 : 19). For livelihood to be resilient, it should be adaptable in the face of adverse conditions, and if necessary be realigned or reinvented ex post in the face of sometimes drastically altered socio-economic or ecological realities. Careful attention to the capabilities and assets could help ameliorate future vulnerability and aid disaster recovery.

The United Nations (UN) defines disasters as ‘a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope with its own resources’ (UNISDR 2009 : 9). Environmental events, such as typhoons or earthquakes, are only classed as disasters when populations are seriously overwhelmed by the impact. The social aspect of disasters is a common but important theme in disaster research. Wisner et al. acknowledge that disasters are products ‘of social, political and economic environments because of the way these structure the lives of different groups of people’ ( 2004 : 4). The nature of this interplay is complex, contested and varies widely across time and space, meaning that ‘disasters cannot be understood to be “natural” in any straightforward way’ (Wisner et al. 2004 : 9). Meanwhile, Daniel P. Aldrich highlights social systems and resources that are overwhelmed by disaster. Aldrich defines disasters as ‘event[s] that suspend normal activities and threatens or cause severe, community wide damage’ ( 2012 : 3). The use of the word community is notable as disaster is seen to impact on some sort of collective that is not necessarily the state.

Disasters often have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable populations and ‘disasters occur when natural hazards and human vulnerabilities interact’ (Bacon 2014 : 23). Vulnerability to disasters is heightened by poverty and measures to mitigate and prevent disasters that ignore ‘underlying, hazard independent structural constraints’ (Gaillard et al. 2009 : 126), inevitably ending up treating the symptoms, as opposed to the root causes of vulnerability. Omar D. Cardona defines vulnerability as ‘the physical, economic, political or social susceptibility or predisposition of a community to damage’ ( 2004 : 37). Meanwhile, Bankoff argues that ‘vulnerable populations are created by particular social systems in which the state apportions risk unevenly amongst its citizens’ ( 2003 : 12). Not all poor people are at risk from disasters. Nevertheless, those who live in fragile housing in exposed localities or risky locations and lack access to financial or material safety nets (in other words buffers) are particularly vulnerable to calamities.

Indeed, as indicated by Rigg et al., ‘natural events may appear cruelly random but their impacts, who they affect and how, the degree of resilience that societies and individuals exhibit, and the trajectories of recovery, are far from random’ ( 2008 : 138). As we can see from the above, there is consensus that vulnerability is socially determined. For this reason, an approach to disasters that focuses on vulnerability and widens the discussion to ‘consider context, human rights and security more generally’ (Brown and Westaway 2011 : 333) is of value. For without social change, pre-existing vulnerability is likely to prevail in the aftermath of a disaster. This indicates that to devise sustainable livelihood in ‘extraordinary’ times in the aftermath of disasters, we need to re-evaluate the social injustice and vulnerability in the pre-disaster moments, i.e. the ordinary times.

This means getting ‘back to normal’ after a disaster is both a moving target and not necessarily an ideal state of affairs (Kelman et al. 2016 : S137–S138). This is especially crucial when extreme weather events are arguably the new normal (Mondragon 2015 ; David et al. 2013 ; IPCC 2018 ) in countries where hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons or drought and high temperatures already appear with seasonal regularity. As such livelihood strategies need to be sustainable in environmental as well as socio-economic terms. There is also a tension between the need to devise sustainable livelihood strategies that ameliorate immediate and local shocks and stresses with the bigger picture of climate change. Thus far the literature on mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) and development has tended to focus broadly on agriculture (Trujillo and Bass 2015 ), the physical environment (Chmutina and Bosher 2015 ; Wamsler 2006 ), governance (Tanner et al. 2019 ) and gender (Ginige et al. 2009 ; Khoza et al. 2019 ; Yumarni and Amaratunga 2018 ). A specific focus on the complexity of sustainable livelihood in both the ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’ is lacking. This is where this article will turn to next.

4 Pre-disaster livelihood vulnerability (ordinary conditions)

One day before Yolanda, on 7 November 2013, barangay captains and local government officials were tasked with encouraging people to go to designated evacuation centres or higher ground in anticipation of the coming super typhoon. National government leaders and agencies, through television and radio, warned of the strength of the coming typhoon. Key informants noted that while some followed the warning and evacuated, others remained or decided to stay at home to guard their property. Despite the vulnerability of their housing and coastal location, poor householders chose to stay put in the face of an impending disaster in order to safeguard their scarce possessions, which represented ‘their life’s work and sacrifices’ (Dalisay and de Guzman 2016 : 708–709). The coping strategies for many of the poor when warned of the imminent danger of a major typhoon was for the women and young children to evacuate to storm shelters whilst the men and older boys stay put and guard their houses and scarce possessions. This meant many of the men and older boys perished in the typhoon. This was evidenced by Bernardita Valenzuela, Footnote 5 Head of Tacloban City Information Office and executive assistant to Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who described trying to convince a family to leave:

I asked a fisher family to leave and said that the mayor has sent vehicles for them to go to the evacuation centre. The head of family responded, “Ma’am I cannot leave my house, my belongings and my pig”. His pig is his means of livelihood […] “What is the use of my life if I have no roof over my head and no food to put on the table for my family?” He said, “don’t get angry Ma’am you bring my wife and my daughters” […] He and his sons, they were all washed away (Valenzuela 2015 ).

People also refused to leave because they underestimated the impact of Yolanda. This led to the high casualty rate. We heard the phrase ‘We were used to typhoons, but we did not expect the storm surge’ repeatedly. A combination of past experience and the perceived importance of safeguarding livelihood assets and material goods meant that vulnerable householders were prepared to engage in ‘risky’ behaviour in the face of an incoming disaster. The ‘buffers’ discussed earlier in this article were either weak or absent in some cases. Even though the family above engaged in both fishing and raising a pig, the loss of the pig would have equated to the loss of a significant livelihood asset. In Region VIII as a whole, pre-Typhoon Yolanda (2012) statistics show that 24.9 per cent of the urban population were living in poverty. However, the numbers were much higher for certain groups e.g. 49.2 per cent of farmers, 46.4 per cent of fishermen and 40.4 per cent of self-employed or unpaid family workers (Philippine Statistics Authority 2016 : 2–15) meaning that these groups were potentially more vulnerable to shocks and stresses. This gives credence to the argument that ‘people and their vulnerability or resilience, instead of the physical implications of natural hazards, should be at the core of [disaster] analysis’ (Bambals 2015 : 150). Many people were vulnerable before Typhoon Yolanda and were subsequently left completely destitute in the aftermath of the disaster. Homes and possessions were swept away and family members were lost. The loss of tangible assets such as land, equipment (for example, tools, boats), livestock, crops and manpower from the household had a significant effect on livelihood.

5 Post-disaster livelihood interventions (extraordinary conditions)

USAID estimated that Typhoon Yolanda affected the income stream of 5.9 million, workers ‘as a result of infrastructure damage, lack of access to markets, and disrupted cash flow’ (USAID 2014 : 2). Of those 5.9 million ‘44 per cent (2.6 million) of those affected were engaged in vulnerable employment as own account or contributing family workers with limited income and social security prior to the disaster’ (ILO 2015 : 11). ‘Vulnerable employees’, that is the self-employed who are directly dependent on the profit made from the goods and services produced, are most exposed to sudden and hurtful disruptions to livelihood.

Employment figures in the aftermath of Yolanda remained steady, most likely because of the multiple livelihood programmes available and the opportunities that came with the post-typhoon reconstruction fuelled economic boom. However, 47.7 per cent in 2013 and 50.4 per cent in 2014 of those classed as employed were working less than 40 h a week (Philippine Statistics Authority 2016b : 11.3) meaning that the line between employed and underemployed Footnote 6 was perhaps questionable. Please see the table below for a list of livelihood initiatives mentioned by our informants. The list is non-exhaustive but gives an idea of the kinds of programmes offered by government and other agencies in operation post Yolanda (Table  1 ).

Despite the relatively healthy employment figures detailed above, the predominantly female respondents in the barangays under investigation gave far higher rates of unemployment and underemployment than the official averages for Region VIII. As evidenced in the chart below (Fig.  1 ).

Rate of unemployment based on authors’ survey data. [For full survey results see (Berja 2015 )]

These figures are perhaps indicative that the region wide averages masked significant pockets of unemployment in the most vulnerable communities.

During our first survey round in 2015, 91.2 per cent of our survey respondents indicated that Typhoon Yolanda affected their livelihood. In 2016, 50 per cent reported that sourcing livelihood was more difficult in the time period since Yolanda and by 2017 this had dropped to 38 per cent. But despite this improvement over time 76 per cent in 2015, 82 per cent in 2016 and 83 per cent in 2017 reported that they had received no livelihood assistance or training. Before Typhoon Yolanda, most residents in the areas under investigation were engaged in the manufacturing and services sector, such as working in factories, and as sellers and traders and other labour-based jobs. However, less than half of our survey respondents living below the poverty threshold relied on salaries for their income, 33.2 per cent ran small businesses, 4.3 per cent received financial assistance of some sort, 1.9 per cent lived off a pension with 18.3 per cent citing ‘other’ sources of income. The diversity of activity reported as ‘livelihood’ reinforces the validity of Chambers’ claim ( 1995 : 191) that livelihood is a much more meaningful term than employment when capturing how people make a living. According to Chambers, ‘on livelihood, the strategies of the poor are usually diverse and often complex’ ( 1995 : 192). Consequently, the measurement of monetary income as a determinant of sustainable livelihood may be problematic as income may be fluctuating, fragmented and fail to capture other forms of material exchange. The high level of non-salary income amongst the poor is also indicative that livelihood schemes and entrepreneurial training are extremely important. Our interviewees repeatedly cited lack of livelihood as a source of vulnerability for Yolanda survivors.

5.1 Aid allocation

In the mid-term recovery phase numerous agencies handed out free cash without any need to contribute labour to the projects. This created a competition between the different aid agencies and within communities, as people naturally took the free cash rather than work for it. Free cash can also create a dependency mentality, as people begin to rely on further donations to sustain them. In the longer term, vulnerability cannot be countered by dole outs. It is, therefore, important that aid enables survivors the freedom to pursue efficient, contextually appropriate and sustainable livelihood strategies. In other words, after the initial emergency phase, government agencies and aid agencies should focus on capability building and the building of ‘livelihood’ buffers in order to minimise risk, stabilise livelihood and reduce vulnerability. The failure to diversify was evident in relation to fisheries and coconut farming as detailed below.

Typhoon Yolanda directly affected 39,000 fisher families. Multiplier effects meant that up to 400,000 people, whose livelihoods were indirectly related to fisheries, were affected (ReliefWeb 2014 : 15). The Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC) organised a mechanism to monitor the distribution of clearly needed boats. However, we found numerous examples of duplicated aid. Fishermen were favoured recipients of equipment and aid but in some cases individual fisherman received up to three boats (with others not receiving even one), by different donors. Footnote 7 This is because boat donations make good headlines and positive public relations for the donor agencies, which could encourage more donations to that particular agency. Poorly planned over-generosity often results in greater competition among the fisherfolk, as boats were also given to non-fishers. The increase in fishing activity depletes the fishery resources and threatens the sustainability of livelihoods. Alternatively, boats are accepted but lie unused and are simply a waste of much-needed resources.

Many of our interviewees also indicated that there were sectoral preferences on helping fishermen, but very little on farmers, factory workers and people working in the informal sector. The government has come under criticism as farming programs ‘do not necessarily address the issue of agriculture backwardness and underdevelopment that should be the priority of action’ (IBON 2016 ); in other words, the overarching social order remains the same and farmers remain vulnerable. Most farmers affected by Yolanda rely on coconut farming for their livelihood, but most of the trees were destroyed by the storm and it will take several years for coconut seedlings to grow full-term. However, coco farmers received scant assistance. According to some of our informants, farmers need support for alternative crops suitable for the area, alternative livelihoods, as well as support for irrigation and cooperative building. Without this support, farmers are trapped in a cycle of insecurity as they lack the freedom or capacity to build sustainable livelihood solutions.

5.2 Gender and livelihood

Another phenomenon in evidence was that many livelihood options are gender-biased. As evidenced above, livelihood programmes tend to focus on the rehabilitation of fisherfolks, who are usually men. Darina Romero, barangay captain of Barangay Libertad in Palo Footnote 8 , explained that the women in her community:

Want to do a lot more, to bring in income and also make life easier for our community. We would be grateful if there are some kind of livelihood options available to us, such as an investment to buy an oven so we can start a bakery cooperative, or a weaving cooperative, so we can weave and watch over our kids, and make money at the same time [….] I have asked the government again and again but there are no available funds.

There were some international organisations and donors, such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and CARE that recognised the specific impact of the disaster on women. 50 per cent of their efforts targeted female worker beneficiaries with considerable success. Of the 3354 workers provided with decent work by the ILO, 1536 were women (ILO 2014 ), while CARE have supported 60 women entrepreneurs to build sustainable enterprises (CARE 2015 ). However, these examples are few and far between. In Tacloban, the social arm of the Catholic Church has an ongoing training program in dressmaking for women. In Sta. Cruz, Tanauan, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is developing a milkfish (bangus) processing facility that will be turned over to a women’s association. However, these programmes are selective and targeted, with very few beneficiaries.

We also found that the (re)creation of women focused sari-sari store entrepreneurial activity met with mixed success. Sari-sari stores are small local stalls that sell a variety of household goods. Typically, goods are sold in small units or sachets that are affordable to ‘micro consumers’ otherwise known as the ‘bottom of the pyramid market’ (Prahalad 2014 : 6). Sari-sari store schemes were promoted by a number of donors including USAID in partnership with Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble (US Embassy 2015 ). The stores were lauded (Padua 2014 ) as a means to foster entrepreneurial spirit and were highly desired as evidenced in our focus group discussions with women.

However, the sari-sari store initiatives suffered from a number of problems including oversupply. In 2016, all of the barangay officials that we interviewed reported that the number of stores had increased substantially after Yolanda, typically a figure of 30 per cent was cited. This meant that storeowners in poor communities were competing for limited customers with low spending power. We also found that beneficiaries of the sari-sari store schemes were sometimes out of their depth in their new role as ‘micro-entrepreneurs’. Whilst business training was given, including by the local government, we were also told of cases where beneficiaries could not afford to buy new stock after their start-up capital ran out or they simply spent the money they were given on household expenditure Footnote 9 and the business subsequently collapsed. It seemed that sari-sari store ownership worked best with experienced owners; those who had no experience of running a small business tended to fare less well in some cases.

In a Typhoon Yolanda response review published in April 2014, women interviewees cited sustainable livelihood as a primary need (Sanderson and Willison 2014 : 4). We repeatedly heard calls for more women’s livelihood options during our interviews and FGDs in all 3 years of our data gathering. It is vital to scale up women’s cooperative or livelihood options and extend them to other regions, especially those that are more rural and less accessible. It is also evident from the examples above that post-disaster livelihood strategies must acknowledge women’s role as caregivers and make reasonable adjustments that allow women to maximise their capabilities without compromising the care of their families.

If governmental and non-governmental agencies fail to adapt their strategies to the needs of women, or only pay lip service to gender based issues, they are discriminating against an already vulnerable group and reinforcing the social structure in ordinary times. This has a knock-on effect to the wider community as ‘the security of children and other dependents is at risk when women’s own lives are insecure’ (Enarson 2014 : 46). Even agencies that are full of good intentions may inadvertently add to the insecurity of these women if they do not take full account of their capabilities and commitments, such as their dual roles as workers and family caregivers. As mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this article age, gender, disability, sexuality, ethnic difference, locality and levels of wealth all contribute to how vulnerability and insecurity is experienced. Livelihood assistance that fails to adequately account for the practical limitations of certain groups will fail. Focus group discussions indicated that survivors with complex needs, such as women with children with disabilities, found it extremely difficult to juggle their caring responsibilities with the training and livelihood options offered by relief agencies. Sustainable livelihood strategies have to take account of complex needs, cannot be gender blind and have to be built from the bottom up.

6 Livelihood: a sustainable rebuilding?

The communities assessed in this article were still undergoing rehabilitation and rebuilding more than 6 years after Typhoon Yolanda. In the aftermath of Yolanda, INGOs and NGOs were extremely active, but by November 2016, only four to five international organisations/NGOs were still active. A lack of sustainable livelihood, inadequate and unsafe housing, the inadequate provision of utilities such as water and electricity and incomplete infrastructures such as roads and drainage in the resettlement areas continue to threaten human security. Livelihood opportunities in the resettlement sites, situated mostly away from original areas of residence and work, are generally inadequate and based on micro-entrepreneurial schemes such as food vending, sari-sari stores, and manicure and pedicure treatments. Whilst efforts were made to monitor the viability of these businesses (Roca 2017 ), intense competition, a lack of economies of scale and low profit margins has led to a bare level of subsistence. Some traditional household livelihood strategies such as the raising of pigs were banned in the resettlements, thus depriving households of a much-needed source of income. We observed schemes such as quail egg production, funded by Operation Blessing, fail over the course of our visits to the communities due to lack of demand. Consequently, people are travelling back to their original places of residence in unsafe areas to engage in their former occupations.

The withdrawal of many aid agencies left people worse off than before as the drying up of material provision and livelihood options coincided with their exit. The sheer volume of aid created by the extraordinary conditions that initially inundated Yolanda affected areas contributed to a dependence mentality in various communities. Significant free handouts, and a lack of other viable options created expectations of further assistance. Many of the interviewees we spoke to were extremely concerned as rehabilitation processes were turned over to the government, whom they considered to be the least active actor in the rehabilitation process.

Government agencies are mandated by existing national laws and frameworks and help rebuild local communities. However, work needs to be done on inter-agency and community coordination to enhance effective community rehabilitation. Agencies working in the aftermath of any disaster should concern themselves with ‘the stability and security of people’s capabilities’ (Gasper and Truong 2005 : 377). New opportunities could be offered to the survivors, capitalising on the resources and knowledge available within the region and local communities. Social and material reconstruction could come about through new, locally sensitive and more proactive ways of doing things.

Livelihood transformation programs that enable marginalized communities to reduce vulnerability through stronger social resilience should be promoted. In many of the barangays we visited, locals proposed livelihood alternatives that would actually be sustainable even when external assistance stops. We heard suggestions utilising local resources that are readily available in ordinary times, such as sand and cement factories, bakery and sewing and other forms of cooperatives. We heard calls for gender focused livelihood programs. However, the reality is that communities and individuals have little control over the creation of ‘buffers’ or the trajectory of their recovery, which are mostly initiated by external stakeholders who are only privy to the ‘extraordinary’ conditions. This entrenches them in their marginalized position in society in the pre-disaster context. They remain vulnerable and powerless and resilience remains an aspiration rather than a sustainable reality.

Thus, crucial in post-disaster livelihood recovery are DRRM plans prepared by national and local governments, together with partner agencies and communities, which anticipate possible losses and prepare for sustainable alternative livelihoods. In the three localities, we investigated there were no comprehensive local DRRM plans, which were mandated by law, before Typhoon Yolanda hit in 2013. In Tacloban, the city’s DRRM plan was only created in 2016. In Palo, there was a draft DRRM plan in existence in 2013 but it was not yet approved when Yolanda struck. Tanauan appeared to be the most advance in this respect, as the municipality was the first local government to submit a recovery roadmap or plan to the national government after Yolanda. But across all three locations plans were crafted under ‘extra-ordinary’ circumstances. Overall national and local government agency data and monitoring systems were inadequate and lacked systematic coordination with different stakeholders. This led to duplication of aid, neglect of certain areas and sectors and waste via oversupply in others.

To summarise, if livelihood is to be sustainable then it must enhance pre-disaster skills and productive assets, be scaled up and the supply of goods produced must be linked to market demand. This is why it is important that sustainable livelihoods should be crafted for ‘ordinary’ (pre-disaster) rather than ‘extraordinary’ (post-disaster) conditions. Economic booms based on the initial rehabilitation phase will inevitably collapse unless great care is taken to foster longer-term demand for goods and services and the capability to meet this demand. If local demand collapses or access to markets further afield is impractical then even initially functioning livelihood projects will be doomed to failure. For livelihood strategies to be sustainable in the long run, they must be cognizant of ‘normal’ (or ordinary) realities such as care giving duties, ease of access to the workplace, weak or corrupt governance and exposure to flooding or drought. All these should be factored in local DRRM plans that should anticipate future disasters.

7 Conclusion

Before Typhoon Yolanda, many of the population in Tacloban, Palo and Tanauan living in low-lying coastal areas were vulnerable to inundation during typhoons (Lagmay et al. 2015 ). In some locations, this is still the case. Many residents in impoverished coastal barangays lived on the shore, or even over, the water with houses supported by wooden or bamboo stilts. The communities were chronically vulnerable to the elements. The capacity to build buffers against shocks or stresses to livelihood or to diversify activity was somewhat limited in these communities. People did not have the freedom to move away from the sea as land was scarce and livelihood opportunities were tied to proximity to the sea and other nearby means of making a living. Meanwhile, attempts at diversification were sometimes hindered by the inexperience of ‘micro-entrepreneurs’, intense competition over limited local markets and the piecemeal relocation of communities to higher ground.

There needs to be a carefully managed transition between emergency cash for work or cash for no work programs and diverse and sustainable livelihood building. Cosmetic post-disaster relief strategies that result in similar or equal but different vulnerabilities do not result in resilience. Similarly, the restoration of a pre-disaster status quo does not equate to resilience if suboptimal pre-disaster socio-economic structures remain entrenched. People and communities remain vulnerable under such conditions as they cannot effectively mitigate the risks that they face. This vulnerability is experienced unevenly. Certain livelihood sectors such as fishermen, farmers and own account workers; and certain demographics, such as women and the elderly, were particularly vulnerable.

The overarching objective of this article has been to critically assess the livelihood strategies that were used to reduce individuals’ and communities’ vulnerability in the aftermath of Yolanda. It appears that despite the significant relief and rehabilitation effort in the aftermath of the Typhoon Yolanda, individuals and communities in the areas we studied remain vulnerable. They are functioning, and people often see themselves as resilient. However, they still face a range of obstacles that impede the building of buffers against future shocks and stresses as most strategies are tailored in, and towards, ‘extraordinary’ conditions. Post-disaster livelihood assistance often failed to account for actual need, the sustainability of projects, pre-existing skills sets or caregiving responsibilities. Complex vulnerabilities experienced by women, the elderly, and those tasked with caring for people with disabilities were often overlooked. Coordination mechanisms and legal frameworks that should have anticipated these considerations were often either ignored or weakly implemented. The local governments that were supposed to be at the frontline of DRRM work were unprepared, overwhelmed, and caught off-guard by Yolanda and its aftermath. It also appears that participatory mechanisms where substantial community inputs are considered, especially in livelihood plans, were lacking.

Overall resilience must be about bouncing ‘forward’ rather than bouncing ‘back’ to an improved socio-economic normalcy, especially for the most vulnerable in society. For livelihood to be sustainable, we need to address pre-disaster social vulnerability entrenched by multiple factors such as gender and other protected characteristics. Post-disaster resilience can be meaningfully related to sustainable livelihood but bringing about change that builds capacity and alleviates vulnerability is key. Across cases this could include a realistic examination of local environmental factors and natural resource dependence, culture and the role of women, infrastructure and market access for locally produced goods and services and the extent to which livelihood can be organised on a collective basis. Government agencies and non-governmental organisations should also consider further the diverse earning streams of the poor that can be adjusted to account for factors such as caregiving, seasonal changes in the weather or market demand in holiday or celebration periods. We observed strategies that neglected empowerment, capacity building and the importance of giving voice to individuals and their communities, especially the most vulnerable ones. If agency is to be effectively built, survivors should be helped to identify for themselves the livelihood strategies that reduce vulnerability and help build secure futures.

Finally, in the future DRRM strategies need to mainstream sustainable livelihood into development planning in ways that boost capabilities and reduce vulnerability. A systematic mapping of vulnerability, even before disaster strikes, with the participation of local people and communities, could help aid agencies and governments identify policy shortcomings and become more reflective about what disaster relief could and should achieve, particularly in building sustainable livelihoods.

In the aftermath of disasters, asset bubbles can be created whereby the cost of goods and services are rapidly inflated due to demand generated by aid influx. Such assets could include e.g. catering and accommodation, office space, interpreters, drivers and labourers, construction materials and machinery or water. Where local economies rely on sectors significantly affected by the disaster such as tourism, farming or fisheries, and piecemeal own account working is common dependence on the disaster economy is likely to be higher. This means that when demand contracts and asset prices fall, or the bubble bursts, the local economy could end up worse off than before the disaster.

A distinction can be made within the Visayas with Eastern, Northern and Western Samar provinces recording higher poverty rates than Leyte (most number of poor families) and being in the top ten poorest provinces of the Philippines together with Negros Oriental in 2012 (NAPC). However, in the first half of 2014, Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) became the poorest region in the country (NSCB 2015 ).

The barangays chosen were: Tacloban: Barangays 54, 54-A, 66-A, 67, 87, 88, 89, and Abucay (least affected); Palo: Cavite, Cogon, Libertad (least affected), Pawing, Salvacion, and San Joaquin; and Tanauan: Bislig, Calogcog, Salvador (least affected), San Roque, Sta. Cruz, and Sto. Niño.

For conceptual overviews of the term resilience as they relate to disaster relief see: Alexander ( 2013 ), Cote and Nightingale ( 2012 ), Manyena ( 2006 ) and Mitchell and Harris ( 2012 ), Weichselgartner and Kelman ( 2014 ).

Interview, November 11, 2015.

Underemployment is when a person is employed but his/her labour is underutilized in terms of hours worked, skills used and compensation paid.

Interviews with barangay captains in 2015.

Interview, 11 November 2016.

Interview, Tacloban Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin ( 2017 ).

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This research is funded by an ESRC/DFID Joint Fund Poverty Alleviation Grant (ES/M008932/1, £347,000.00). Dr. Pauline Eadie is Primary Investigator and Prof. May Tan-Mullins (University of Nottingham, Ningbo) and Prof. Maria Ela Atienza (University of the Philippines Diliman) are Co-Investigators.

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Eadie, P., Atienza, M.E. & Tan-Mullins, M. Livelihood and vulnerability in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda: lessons of community and resilience. Nat Hazards 103 , 211–230 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-03984-z

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10 years on, Yolanda survivors grapple with memory, delayed recovery

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

CLIMATE JUSTICE. Participants in the Climate Justice Walk cross the San Juanico Bridge to Tacloban City on November 7, 2023. The solidarity walk that started in Manila on October 8 commemorates the 10th year of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Geric Cruz/Greenpeace

This story is part of Rappler’s series on the 10th anniversary of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). 

Yolanda was one of the most powerful typhoons in history, which made landfall on November 8, 2013. The super typhoon claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions from their homes. Ten years later, Rappler visits some of the affected communities to see what life has been like since the disaster.

TACLOBAN, Philippines – Almost everyone you ask in Tacloban City has a Yolanda story.

From the housing projects in north Tacloban to the coastal areas downtown, everyone has something to tell. If they were not in Tacloban that day, they can still recall stories based on their relatives’ experiences.

In their stories, the same images kept repeating. Residents remembered watching the news about Janet Lim Napoles , the so-called pork barrel queen who testified in a Senate hearing the day before Yolanda wrought havoc in the country. That Friday, it was dark and the winds were howling. Water was everywhere. When the storm was over, the streets were hardly passable. Dead bodies were made ordinary. People kept walking long distances.

Every year since November 8, 2013, it has been the practice in Tacloban to mark the thousands of lives claimed by Yolanda.

But for nurse Fe Anelia Sia, one of the medical personnel who went on duty four days after Yolanda made landfall, memorializing was not a choice. They have had to endure the persistence of memory.

“ Kasi kung ako lang, ayokong alalahanin ang nangyari noon. Mabigat sa loob na i-recall mo iyon. Ten years na ang nakakalipas, ganoon pa rin. On the process pa rin kami ng moving on, ” she told Rappler last October.

(If it were up to me, I don’t ever want to remember what happened before. It is heavy to recall. Ten years have passed, but things remain the same. We’re still in the process of moving on.)

Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) took the lives of more than 6,000 people, affected millions, and caused P95.48 billion in damage . It is considered one of the most powerful storms in world history, with recorded maximum sustained winds at 315 kilometers per hour.

It made the first of its six landfalls in Guiuan, an isolated fishing town in Eastern Samar, but it was Tacloban that bore the brunt and became ground zero of Yolanda.

The disaster caused by Yolanda put Tacloban and the Philippines on the global spotlight and intensified the clamor for better disaster preparedness and adaptation in the country.

Housing remains biggest challenge

As similar images and stories persist among those who lived to tell the tale, so do the problems in rehabilitation.

To this day, thousands of housing units made for Yolanda survivors remain unused or in disrepair. Water connection is still a problem in the housing sites, which Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez attributed to a long-running issue in Tacloban’s water pipes.

Rappler Talk: Alfred Romualdez on learnings from Yolanda, 10 years later

Even the choice to relocate people up north was criticized. The housing sites were far from downtown, where business and commerce take place.

Ladylyn Mangada, associate professor of political science at University of the Philippines Tacloban, called this a “wholesale relocation.” Mangada studied post-Yolanda adaptation in the context of housing, women’s reproductive health, and remittances.

According to Mangada, the deluge of help also created a problem. It was hard to track down who was responsible for some wrong choices made.

“Sometimes, they point fingers,” said Mangada. “Was it the fault of the city government or the humanitarian organizations?”

In the immediate aftermath, local and foreign organizations went out of their way to help the people hit by the typhoon. In the course of 10 years, many humanitarian organizations kept coming back to give aid. Even the Pope visited Tacloban .

Mangada lamented that the local government could have done more to avoid the delays, give survivors their homes, and remove people who continue to live in no-dwell zones.

“ Kaya naman ng leadership dapat, pero nakulangan talaga ako, “ said Mangada. “ Mabagal ang pag-construct ng bahay, substandard. ” (The leadership could have done it, but I found what they did lacking. The construction of houses was slow, it was substandard.)

When Rappler visited Tacloban last October, many housing units were overrun by weeds and wild plants. Rows of houses were dilapidated and unoccupied. Meanwhile, many people remained in no-dwell zones in the city.

Call her Landa

The tragedy of Yolanda continues to fuel debates on disaster management. For one, it is still an ongoing discussion whether or not to set up a separate national government agency dedicated to disaster resilience.

Caution: Climate change

As one of the deadliest typhoons in history, Yolanda continues to be a cautionary tale of what can happen as human activities exacerbate the climate crisis.

Annually, many environmental and climate change groups mark the anniversary by lighting candles every November 8 in parts of the country. Some groups organize awareness campaigns, photo exhibits, and storytelling events to commit the tragedy to memory.

This year, green groups initiated a climate walk from Manila to Tacloban.

“When Typhoon Yolanda took the lives and homes of thousands in 2013, our government made promises to prevent further climate change so we can avoid another Yolanda,” said Aaron Pedrosa, head of the legal team of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ).

“Ten years later, we still have fossil fuel plants warming the atmosphere. We need to act now more than ever.”

PMCJ is one of the organizations that joined the climate walk for the 10th anniversary. Every year, the group joins Yolanda commemoration activities and has been active in opposing mining in Eastern Samar and the continuous operations of coal-fired power plants in the country.

“The people of Tacloban [have] yet to heal from the horrors of Yolanda because reparations became idle and there were no climate-related actions to ensure that another Yolanda will not happen again,” said Farahdiva Gamalo, convenor of PMCJ’s Eastern Visayas chapter.

During a visit to the weather radar station of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Rappler talked to Marianito Macasa about Yolanda and the increasing world temperature.

Macasa is the officer-in-charge of the station. When Yolanda first made landfall at 4:40 am in Guiuan, Macasa was in the complex. He remembered getting his left ear nicked by the sliding door that was blown off.

“With global warming, we expect typhoons to get stronger,” Macasa told Rappler in Filipino.

Macasa hoped that better policies integrating science would be implemented by local leaders. After all, there have been many seminars and training sessions on disaster preparedness and adaptation in the last 10 years.

He said he was also a resource person for flood and typhoon drills regularly conducted in the town.

“They have conducted a lot of seminars,” Macasa said in Filipino. “It would be impossible if until now they haven’t absorbed anything.”

PANOORIN: Mga Kuwentong Yolanda

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited Tacloban on Wednesday, November 8, for the 10th anniversary of Yolanda. Cousins of the President and members of Tacloban’s political clan, the Romualdezes, joined him in the day’s commemorative activities.

On Wednesday morning, a Holy Mass at the Tacloban Convention Center was held. Marcos led the wreath-laying ceremony in honor of those who died during Yolanda. The Department of Science and Technology also held an exhibit of innovations and technologies in disaster risk reduction and management on the same day.

Before the day ended, green groups converged at Plaza Rizal for the annual candle-lighting ceremony.

Follow Rappler’s coverage of the 10th anniversary of Yolanda here . – Rappler.com

ALSO ON RAPPLER

• After Yolanda: A causeway threatens efforts by locals to restore a mangrove forest
• After Yolanda: A teacher’s dream for the children of Guiuan
• Rappler Talk: Guiuan’s decade of recovery after Yolanda
• WATCH: How the people of Eastern Samar take care of the environment
• Rappler Recap: ‘Work is not done,’ Marcos says of Yolanda recovery
• Rappler Recap: Tacloban residents light candles for 10th year of Yolanda
• On Yolanda’s 10th year, groups urge gov’t to ‘hold big polluters accountable’
• Marcos resurrects issue of ‘uncounted, unrecorded’ victims of Yolanda

A decade later: 15% of Yolanda houses unfinished, thousands unoccupied

[under 3 minutes] kumusta na ang yolanda housing projects, part 2: water, electricity issues bog yolanda relocation plans.

Please abide by Rappler's commenting guidelines .

I’m not a BBM fan but I can’t fault him for the fact that nothing has been done and that the houses built are in disarray and substandard. There was so much foreign aid pored into the recovery of Typhoon Yolanda. Who profited the most from the money? For a professed highly religious country, the people in power have no soul.

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A wake up call: One typhoon survivor's story

25-year-old Joanna Sustento is from the city of Tacloban, Philippines. She is a Typhoon Haiyan survivor and is trying to make sense of the tragedy after she and her eldest brother lost their whole family to the storm. Joanna sought comfort and found a tool to heal through writing. It is through her stories that she aims to empower her community and hopefully the whole world, to resist and work for a future that will no longer fear or be threatened by the adverse impacts of climate change. This important message was directed to world leaders at the Bonn Climate Change Conference 2017 to take climate action  #foreverychild .

[Transcript]

It was 5 o’ clock on a Friday morning of November 8, 2013, when my family was awakened by the unnerving wailing of the ferocious winds. We thought it was just another normal stormy day, so we sat together on the dining table and had breakfast. As the wind and rain got stronger, we felt the house vibrate and tremble because of the pressure. When we looked outside, trees were already uprooted; our concrete walls were destroyed, windows cracked and all of a sudden murky waters came rushing in. In just a matter of seconds, the water rose to knee level. I rushed to my room to get my backpack filled with my stuff- it didn’t even take me 3 minutes to do that- but as I went out of my room, the water was already up to my chest. We had no other choice but to go out of the house or else we will be trapped inside. Due to the strong current rushing in, I had a hard time getting out of the house but my mom pulled me out.

As the water was rising, we struggled more to stay afloat, and it became more difficult to stay together. My elder brother- the one who survived- was the first one who got separated from us. He tried to swim for the floating ice box, so we could put my nephew inside but we failed to do that. I saw my sister-in-law drifting away from us while she held on to a tree branch. Then, I saw my nephew with a lifejacket on- floating behind his mom. I saw his father- my eldest brother swim to their direction. But everything was so hazy- I couldn’t see well because of the strong wind and rain, and it was as if crushed ice were being thrown at my face. My parents were the ones close in proximity, thus we held on to a log. At that point, I could see the worry in their eyes that they were trying to hide. I never expected that the last memory I would have with my father would be in the monstrous floods of Haiyan. I saw him trying to surface the waters, gasping for air- three times- and that was it, I never saw him again after that. Then, I saw a refrigerator floating, so I held onto it and let my mom hold it as well. We found ourselves at the building near the back of our house. The waves were crashing onto the refrigerator we were holding that I was being pushed under the steel trusses, I was afraid to be trapped so I pushed the refrigerator away and held onto a log instead; that was the time my mom and I got separated.

Striving to surface the water as piles of debris were blocking my head, I felt like I was being spun inside a washing machine. I could not breathe and I seriously thought I was going to die. Not knowing what to do, I told myself if that was the day I was going to my watery grave, then so be it. Never in my life have I talked to God with deep remorse and in complete surrender. However, death decided to “postpone”, I was given another chance to live. Using my head I pushed the debris away until I was able to surface. As soon as I saw my mother, I immediately drifted towards her, grabbed her arms and tried to lift half of her body so she could hold on to the wood I was using to stay afloat. But when my hands slipped from her arms to her fingers, her body splashed into the water and there was no sign of her struggling to survive.

My mom was gone.

I found myself being swept away by the 15 ft. high storm surge to the steel frames of a water tank, as my mother died in my arms. Then, I was forced to face a question I never thought I could ask myself in this lifetime- should I continue to hold on to my mom’s lifeless body and die with her? Or should I let her go and save myself?

I could not even begin to describe the agony, the desperation, the guilt, and the chaos running through my mind because I was torn between saving what’s left of my family and holding on for my dear life. But at the back of my mind, something told me that there must be a reason why I was able to survive the storm and no matter how insurmountable it may seem, I want to find out what that reason is.

Thus, with all the love that I had- I asked for my mom`s forgiveness for everything I did that hurt her. I thanked her being the strong woman that she is, and for everything she has done for our family. I told her I love her again and again, I embraced and kissed her for the last time.

And that was it- I let her go and I never looked back...

It was indeed an unbearable dilemma- to this day, I still ask myself if I had made the right choice or if I could have done something more because living without my family just did not make sense. More than thousands of people lost their homes, livelihood and properties. Most of all, Haiyan displaced millions and claimed thousands of lives- five of those are my parents, my eldest brother, my sister-in-law and my three-year old nephew. We never found our father and our nephew.

The horror brought about by Haiyan bred by the warming waters of the Pacific, did not stop there. Different alarming stories spread like wildfire causing unexplainable fear and paranoia. Access to medication and basic necessities such as food, water and shelter went scarce, and the dramatic soap-opera unfolding brought to us by our government and their political alliances and clan wars added salt to the wounds- leaving everyone- especially children- in jeopardy.

Every day since the onslaught, we were in a place we called home but we looked around, and tried to find the city that once was, and by the end of the day we come to terms with the heart-breaking reality that it’s no longer the same- and it never will be.

Here in the Philippines- as in any other country vulnerable to climate change impacts- when disasters happen, it is children who are at risk the most. They suffer a deep trauma from going through an experience they do not understand. Imagine a child who is looking forward to get an education only to find out his school is damaged and he cannot study anymore. Imagine a child who has no access to food, health and medical security because his parents` livelihood has been torn apart. Imagine a child who has nowhere to go because his home has been washed away. Imagine a child who used to love the ocean but he cannot even bear to look at it anymore because it is the same waters that took his family away from him. Imagine a child who no longer dreams for a future because he finds no reason to make something out of himself. Imagine a child who receives no financial and emotional support- a child who has been left with no choice but to fend for himself. Imagine a child who has no family to hold on to- a family that would shower him with love and care. Imagine a child- especially young girls- going all through the direct impacts of climate change and is forced to deal with another nightmare- as she is sold in exchange for food and other scarce supplies, exploited into forced labour with a promise of a good job or a scholarship in exchange for sex. Imagine it all because this is the reality that we live in- not only here in the Philippines but in other parts of the world.

While it is said that the children are our future, let us ask ourselves if our present actions and decisions address the current problems and threats children are facing today. Because if these are given ample significance, we will be able to give justice to our children and create a future that is worthy to look forward to- a future that will not deprive them of the wonderful things we enjoy today, a future that is not filled with experiences of running away from storms, a future growing up with family and friends filled with love, a future so bright and far from calamities that they would not be afraid to dream again, a future where they could play and practice their advocacies, a future where health, safety and education are consistent and within reach, a future where food security is abundant, a future where our children enjoy and value their basic right to a safe, clean and healthy environment. The drastic change will not happen immediately. It would take several years and some would say that this ambition is a long shot- a shoot to the moon- even almost impossible- but I know that I could never forgive myself if I do nothing because I have already seen and experienced the worst- so far. The wrath of Super Typhoon Haiyan is an example of what`s to come- and this is an  absolute injustice that should not be passed on to our children and future generations .

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Search form, documentary: together we stand after yolanda.

Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) left 4 million people homeless. An estimated 14,433 families were displaced in Tacloban alone. 

As of September 15, 2016, only 8% of the total target of the National Housing Authority in Tacloban have moved to permanent resettlement sites. 

How are survivors doing three years after the storm? These are their stories. 

As the country remembers the third anniversary of Haiyan, climate experts and world leaders are gathered in Morocco for the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to discuss how the Paris climate agreement would be implemented. It is the first major summit since the treaty was adopted in Paris in December 2015. 

The Philippines is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. It is imperative that the implementation of the climate deal ensures that resources would be allocated to help vulnerable countries build their resilience and adapt to climate change.

Urge the Senate to ratify the Paris climate agreement now:  https://act.oxfam.org/asia/philippines-ratify

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Five years after typhoon haiyan, a young survivor reflects on how the typhoon changed her hometown and her life.

When I was 13, I experienced the wrath of Typhoon Haiyan. I held on to the window grills during the storm surge and got separated from the rest of my family. I can still remember how freezing cold it was.

After the storm passed, our house was partly destroyed. We spent days sleeping in wet clothes and shared one plate of food.

The time when people assumed we’d be the saddest was the time that we were most grateful. Grateful for being alive, primarily. And also, grateful for all that we’ve been given after losing everything. 

Five years later, I am now a Grade 12 student. And Tacloban hasn’t just recovered—we’ve stood up and we’re running in this life’s race again. We went through devastation, yes. But we were never alone in recovering from it.

For us, it meant so much. It meant like the world was telling us that we were not alone. For us, it was hope. That is why in every Taclobanon’s heart, is hope. Because the world has lit up that hope in all of us.

Today, electricity isn’t just back in Tacloban, we can even access the internet. Education is definitely back to normal. We actively participate in school activities, serve in organizations outside school and have become more conscious of how to care for the environment. 

Because of Haiyan, nature now has a personal and deeper significance to us. The government of Tacloban now emphasizes children’s safety. Whenever the weather poses danger, classes are suspended. Knowing what it feels like to be in need, Tacloban also engages itself in relief-operations for other provinces.

Today, we've risen above the calamity. We live in a mindset of a hopeful future. That is because of every help and prayers sent for us. God knows how grateful we are. Haiyan is part of us and it made us stronger. It left an identity for Tacloban that united us with the world, as a rock that may have tumbled us along the way.

The world and organizations like UNICEF encouraged us to stay strong, embrace our identity, and stand after tumbling down. We, the children of Tacloban, were minors during the devastation. We could've lost hope. We were unfamiliar of what we were experiencing and we could have expected it to carry on forever.

We could've thought there is nothing more to our situation than the chaos in our environment. But we didn't. So thank you to everyone. Because you made us realize how special we were, how vulnerable we were, yet still capable.

You taught us to keep going. You taught us to dream. And most especially, you believed in us. Now, we believe in ourselves, too. We do everything we can for our future. We act. We utilize our capabilities to make an impact in our families and in our communities.

When I was 13, I experienced the wrath of Haiyan. Today I'm 18 and headstrong. I face life with a hopeful heart.   

Kiana Gualberto was only 13 when Typhoon Haiyan hit her hometown of Tacloban City. Now 18 years old, she has since developed an inner resilience to adversities and maintains a positive outlook on her future.

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Typhoon Yolanda One of the Most Powerful Typhoons Argumentative Essay

Last November 8, thousands of lives were shaken and even lost when the Typhoon Haiyan (aka Typhoon Yolanda) hit the Philippines. This was said to be one of the world’s most powerful typhoons that ever struck the world. Nobody couldn’t imagine nor think of how destructive it is until it happened. The typhoon hit our country (more specifically in Visayas), and tragedy is what it left behind. Heavy rains and strong winds tore down homes and buildings as well as hearts of those affected.

From time to time I watch the news and see the aftermath of it, and it was a sight I didn’t want to see — it was definitely heartbreaking, knowing that I’ve also experienced being victimized by flood during 2009, which is Ondoy. So I know how it feels, but I the people in Visayas have it worse, and that’s why I didn’t even twice about helping them in simple ways that I can. After the typhoon, the social media network started to blast off with tweets and statuses about the said calamity, and everyone has been sharing things on how each and every one of us could help.

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So, even before the school required or suggested that we, as students should help, my family and I already started sorting and packing out clothes that we could donate, and after that, we searched for areas where we could drop those off, and luckily, we found a nearby mall (Robinsons Metro East) which where we gave the old clothes away. The helping didn’t stop there, because as days go by, the news flashed more information about how the people are suffering and a lot of basic needs needed to be provided and they lacked of those kinds of things, so when we saw celebrities and media people talking about Sagip Kapamilya bringing these ABS-CBN Yolanda Tulong Na, Tabang Na, Tayo Na T-shirts, we immediately ordered so as to provide help.

In an effort to help rebuilt the life of those currently struggling in Visayas, 100% of this item’s sales will go to the relief efforts for the victim of Typhoon Yolanda through Sagip Kapamilya. With just a minimal amount, at least we can help take part in this effort to help and to reach out plus a tangible symbol of our support. Our organization, the Business Management Association, is also taking a part to help, and the BMA is giving away five sacks of rice to the typhoon victims as well. And even if the typhoon is already over, I’m still open to opportunities.

I’ve seen so much from the news, social networking sites, and newspapers, and I can see that this tragedy is somehow a blessing in disguise. This is given because God knows we Filipinos can get through this. There are so many countries that have offered tremendous amounts of help to us, and we see it all the time in the news. Just looking at the bright side of things, there has been an overwhelming amount of support from people and organizations in and out of the country.

The people all over the world are in full support for us and even if typhoon Haiyan is the strongest typhoon ever, we do believe that us Filipinos are the strongest people, and we can overcome this catastrophe with the help of one another. Every single person I meet has relief and Yolanda on their minds and it’s bringing us all together as a nation, and bringing the world together for humanity.

This may not be the incident that we hoped for or expected, but at least this is bringing something good in our country – our willingness to help for each other, and the bayanihan of the Filipinos which never fails. This is a tragedy that all of us won’t forget especially the ones in Visayas, but with the help of each other we can overcome this and come out stronger than we’ve ever been.

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