Written by Pauline Eadie.
On 8 November 2013 super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) hit the Philippines. Yolanda was the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall. The typhoon left vast areas of the Pacific facing Eastern Visayas region in complete disarray. Well over 6000 people died (the final death toll will probably never be known) and the vast landscape of the typhoon ravaged area was left looking like a war zone. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster communication was cut and survivors faced a desperate search for food, water and shelter. A significant international relief effort swung into action. Governmental and non-governmental agencies flooded the region with relief goods, medical, logistical and military personnel, rehabilitation training and goodwill.
November 2016 will mark the three-year anniversary of the typhoon. As part of the ESRC/DFID funded project, ‘Poverty Alleviation in the Wake of Typhoon Yolanda’, our team has been travelling regularly to Leyte in the Eastern Visayas to monitor the progress of the reconstruction. Tacloban City, the epic centre of the disaster, has been our primary focal point. Our first visit was nine months after the disaster in August 2014. Reconstruction work was in full swing. The air was heavy with the smell of new paint and freshly sawn wood. However, people were still living in tent cities and were only just emerging from the shock of the disaster. Yolanda brought with it a storm surge that reached nearly 20 feet in places, a tsunami by any other name, and many survivors had seen their loved ones, houses and possessions swept away. Every evening an eerie quite descended over town. Partly as a result of still limited electricity for street lighting and reduced public transport. But also because ghosts loomed large in the imagination of the locals.
