Responses to Typhoon Haiyan

• Immediate responses:

  • after Philippines declared state of 'national calamity' International Aid organisations brought supplies
  • pre-positioned emergency supplies by the Philippines Red Cross before the typhoon struck: rice, canned food, cooking oil e.c.t.
  • Red Cross supplied 1.1 mill people with clean water
  • Canada and USA deployed military aircraft to assist with search and rescue
  • France and Belgium set up field hospitals
  • 1,200 evacuation centres
• Long-term responses:

  • Financial aid donated by UK, Australia and Japan
  • The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) set up cash-for -work programs that paid villagers to clear debris
  • WHO vaccinated thousands of children against diseases like polio
  • The government 'build back better' strategy which pledged that 205,000 homes would be built to re-home people- by 2016 only 1% of target achieved
  • no-build zone on the coast of the Eastern Visayas
  • Oxfam supported the replacement of fishing boats
  • environmental organistions worked with locals to restore mangrove forests
• Prior:

  • televised warning
  • 800,000 evacuated
  • indoor stadium in Tacloban with reinforced roof to withstand typhoon winds- many died when the stadium flooded