General Info

[Soapy Smith]

I think traveling 3 hours in bus is not big deal for most Filipinos, specially if is for money. On December 24, I travel in bus from 11 am to 10 pm, that was a 11 hours bus ride, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I think you missed the point. Some of the Southern Leyte family members had previously traveled several days all the way to Manila by bus, but not under these desperate conditions. The demolition of many households and power not to be restored until February was the point. And, as GE and others report, this is widespread. A single three-hour bus ride is not a big deal, except that these scenes are being repeated across many provinces, when, in fact, most of the affected households don't even have the money for bus fare to get to some sort of safe haven.

In your opinion do you believe the lack of USA and other western countries response and aid is due to the weaken relationships with the Dutere administration?

BTW, there are very few news articles in the USA about this disaster and lack of water and food. Internet or televised news. A day or two after Yolanda Anderson Cooper / CNN was on the ground. Then 3-4 days later the Philippine government aid people were there. An embarrassed PH government had only 1 out of 3 see-130 cargo planes working and emptied disaster funds stolen long ago.

Now 8 years later it is the same all over again except for the lack of international help.

My three cents: Duterte's stance toward the US may be part of the problem, but Western countries like the US have other distractions: the pandemic, threats of internal violence, Russia crouched at the Ukraine border, and a generally unacknowledged spread of authoritarianism around the globe.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...inning/620526/

I have found the most current news on the aftermath of Rai, not with media in the states, but with Reuters, Al Jazeera, and BBC. The Los Angeles Times did run a story on organizations to which individuals can send contributions, but, as Dg notes, there is no substantial Western governmental response. For that matter, Duterte's friends in China and Russia haven't helped either.

I like Anderson Cooper, but the "Anderson Cooper effect" (actually, Western news outlets generally) is part of the problem. He showed up after Yolanda sooner than most Filipino forces, but probably because CNN could afford a private helicopter, whereas the Philippine government's aircraft were either inoperable or non-existent. He broadcast video of body bags lying around Tacloban and mass, unmarked graves, and compared it to Japanese soldiers present at Fukushima within a couple days, poking around with sticks looking for bodies in the rubble. Japan is a first world country; the Philippines is third world. Multiple land routes connect Tokyo to Fukushima, whereas travel from Manila to Tacloban is a several-day journey, involving a ferry that connects Bicol to Samar, and, in the aftermath of Yolanda, the San Juanico Bridge connecting Samar and Leyte had been closed due to storm damage. Air and sea were the only ways to Tacloban, and the airport was badly damaged and its control tower knocked down. The US Air Force built a temporary air control system after several days, and a US aircraft carrier capable of desalinating salt water arrived later as well. But Cooper's comparison between the situation in Tacloban and Fukushima reflected more ignorance than wisdom.

By the "Anderson Cooper effect" I mean the total focus on calamity and immediate response because these things attract viewers in the West--whereas disasters like Yolanda and Rai are defined primarily by the inability of poor countries to prepare for and mitigate against the effects of increasingly strong typhoons and sea-level rise. The rubble shown in the various news photos from Rai suggests the flimsy construction for most homes of poor Filipinos in the provinces. Compare this to the increasingly stringent building codes that Western countries have developed in the follow-up to natural disasters. But to Anderson Cooper's credit, he did get in a summary interview with Arnel Pineda (Filipino lead singer of the band, Journey) at NAIA airport before leaving after two and a half days for the states. Presumably Manny Pacquiao was unavailable and Pia Wurtzbach had not yet been crowned Miss Universe.

The short answer to the cost of the concrete and metal home Dg proposes is probably somewhere north of $5,000 dollars (250,000 php). More importantly, it's many times more than poor families in the provinces can afford. That's why the disaster photos show all this broken coco wood framework and woven bamboo walls scattered across the landscape of Dingat Island, Siargao, Surigao del Norte, Southern Leyte, and Bohol.

Unfortunately, countries like the Philippines have a top-down approach to disaster management with the military and national police in charge. So the purchase of Blackhawk helicopters, C-130's, and Korean naval vessels takes precedence over building community resilience from the bottom-up.

[Albert9989]

https://youtu.be/g5STK9K9IjU

This is a video of less than 2 minutes in length, that describes the nightmare aftermath of the typhoon.

GE.

That's exactly what my contacts in Inabanga, bohol, told to me.

Up to now, they have very few supplies, small water and rice, no house or roof at all.

They stay outside exposed to the rain.

Road to Tagbilaran is awful.

No power, no network or very small on some places.

Official says that it will take two months to get some electricity back.

Last day they had 2 kilos rice and 2 canned sardines.

And yes, nothing talk about that on the news here, they are silently left alone outside with about nothing.

[GoodEnough]

https://youtu.be/g5STK9K9IjU

This is a video of less than 2 minutes in length, that describes the nightmare aftermath of the typhoon.

GE.

[WestCoast1]

I do't have enough facts to form an opinion, and I'm mystified. Perhaps the rest of the world is too focused on dealing with the succeeding waves of COVID crises to divert attention and funds for this effort. But really, I have no idea.

GE.

It looks great when you are able to buy (borrow, steal, or otherwise appropriate) recent military hardware from other countries. Five Black Hawk helicopters (bringing the total to 16), Korean rocket launching systems, a Korean warship (see link), at least one UAV, and C-130 Hercs (see pics). Then you can't fix the electric grid after a storm, or provide water. Certainly the pandemic doesn't help a natural disaster.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2...korean-warship

[GoodEnough]

In your opinion do you believe the lack of USA and other western countries response and aid is due to the weaken relationships with the Dutere administration?

I do't have enough facts to form an opinion, and I'm mystified. Perhaps the rest of the world is too focused on dealing with the succeeding waves of COVID crises to divert attention and funds for this effort. But really, I have no idea.

GE.

[WestCoast1]

An embarrassed PH government had only 1 out of 3 see-130 cargo planes working and emptied disaster funds stolen long ago.

Now 8 years later it is the same all over again except for the lack of international help.

"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss" -- Pete Townshend, Won't Get Fooled Again, The Who.

[Dg8787]

The number of regions and localities affected by the recent typhoon is greater than it was for Yolanda, though the latter was a stronger storm. The problem here appears to be getting sufficient assistanceshelter, food, water, electricity, cell phone service and yes, fundsto hundreds of thousands of people scattered over a reasonably broad geographic area. In the immediate aftermath of Yolanda, Tacloban and its environs were deluged with international aid. The US alone sent naval ships to provide fresh drinking water, heavy equipment, hospital services, technical expertise and a raft of other assistance. Not so this time, and the response from the rest of the international community has been fairly tepid. Here in Davao, the city government dispatched food, water and personnel to a couple of the areas, and I suppose that other municipalitiesunaffected by Raidid the same, but the magnitude of the disaster means that significant additional help is required and it has not been forthcoming.

GE.

In your opinion do you believe the lack of USA and other western countries response and aid is due to the weaken relationships with the Dutere administration?

BTW, there are very few news articles in the USA about this disaster and lack of water and food. Internet or televised news. A day or two after Yolanda Anderson Cooper / CNN was on the ground. Then 3-4 days later the Philippine government aid people were there. An embarrassed PH government had only 1 out of 3 see-130 cargo planes working and emptied disaster funds stolen long ago.

Now 8 years later it is the same all over again except for the lack of international help.

Btw, does anyone know the estimated cost to build a cinder block 600 sq ft house with a corrugated galvanized metal roof on a cement slab floor?

[WestCoast1]

SN, Mdemde, good boots-on-the-ground reporting.

Some advices from people in Philippines right now, don't go south of Cebu right now, wait until January at least, you won't have fun there right now, not electricity in the whole city, the few areas that have, are condos or areas running power with generators only. The condo I was staying for 2 nights had their generators running 3 times a day, from 6 am to 8 am, 11 am to 1 pm, and 6 pm to 8 pm. Imagine living in the 17+ floor without elevator, like it happened to me.

Both a typhoon issue, and a pandemic issue. Not sure if I reported it a year ago, but my residence at the time had lost one of its two elevators pre-covid. During the pandemic, the second elevator failed, and pandemic supply-chain issues prevented its repair for some weeks. Almost everyone bailed from that place within a week. Who wants to walk up / down 7 flights of stairs, several times daily. You might think its easy to just hit airbb or Agoda and find new digs, but the majority of residences (condo's, apartments, and hotels) were simply closed for this / that reason for the duration of the pandemic, and changing residence was at times either difficult, risky, and / or more expensive.

Even worse all the bars / restaurant in Mabolo, Mandaue, Ayala, IT Park, and even Mango were all close at night. I was only able to find 1 bar in Mango open, a bar owned by a foreigner. I only lasted 2 nights in Cebu City, after I got what I needed (the reason I went there in the first place after the Typhoon), I left that city to north of Cebu, where there is electrity, I spent afew days in a beach tourist island north of Cebu and the bars are open, and there is normal electricity.

Many government departments are staffed at levels far below normal levels during Covid. Staffing depended previously on government decree or CQ status. Typical is 50% staffing (or 30% or less, depending).

For those wandering why the power are not working in Cebu for 10 days now, is because there is alot of electricity post that are almost falling down in the street, roads, houses and almost everywhere, so they are fixing all those posts so people won't get kill electrocuted, so once they finish fixing all those electric posts, they will put the power back. That's what I been told by some of my friends.

See above. That, and supply-chain issues. Where previously it might have taken them 3-5 days to repair an electrical system, it might now take several times that.

BTW if you are in Cebu city, Globe is not working there, but Smart are working in case you need load.

One of my girls didn't communicate for several days, not even in FB to cry her emergency. A globe user. Then this cryptic message: "We are under the water here". She did not reply to my response for 48 hours, then: "My globe works now". I see, things are better? No longer under the water? "No its sh*t for us. Water f*cked everything and top of our home its f*cked and people is get sick here its f*cked". Check.

Mdemde's discussion of a lack of drinking water, even for him, should show the dire-ness of the situation for millions of people.

[Steve Nash]

This story should give a sense of the desperate situation in the parts of the Philippines that were hit by the typhoon. I have friends in Southern Leyte in the municipality of St. Bernard. Their homes were demolished from the effects of wind and a flooding river. They have been living in some sort of evacuation tent. They have been told electric power will not be restored until February 2022. Relatives in Manila want to send them money, but they can't receive it because of the power outage. So, they, or at least some of them, are traveling to Tacloban by bus or jeepneys in order to receive money from the relatives. The trip is more than 150 km. and takes more than three hours. Imagine this happening across the multiple provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon.

I think traveling 3 hours in bus is not big deal for most Filipinos, specially if is for money.

On December 24, I travel in bus from 11 am to 10 pm, that was a 11 hours bus ride, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Some advices from people in Philippines right now, don't go south of Cebu right now, wait until January at least, you won't have fun there right now, not electricity in the whole city, the few areas that have, are condos or areas running power with generators only. The condo I was staying for 2 nights had their generators running 3 times a day, from 6 am to 8 am, 11 am to 1 pm, and 6 pm to 8 pm. Imagine living in the 17+ floor without elevator, like it happened to me. Even worse all the bars / restaurant in Mabolo, Mandaue, Ayala, IT Park, and even Mango were all close at night. I was only able to find 1 bar in Mango open, a bar owned by a foreigner. I only lasted 2 nights in Cebu City, after I got what I needed (the reason I went there in the first place after the Typhoon), I left that city to north of Cebu, where there is electrity, I spent afew days in a beach tourist island north of Cebu and the bars are open, and there is normal electricity.

BTW if you are in Cebu city, Globe is not working there, but Smart are working in case you need load.

For those wandering why the power are not working in Cebu for 10 days now, is because there is alot of electricity post that are almost falling down in the street, roads, houses and almost everywhere, so they are fixing all those posts so people won't get kill electrocuted, so once they finish fixing all those electric posts, they will put the power back. That's what I been told by some of my friends.

[Mdemde]

I live near to the top floor of a high-rise condo building in Cebu City near the main Ayala Mall. On the night of the typhoon, the wind was so strong that the building was swaying. There is another foreigner living in the building in a unit a few floors above me, and he said he also felt the building swaying.

The storm lasted about 2 hours here. During the storm I went down to the parking lot area of the building to have a look outside, though sheltered from the wind and the rain it was terrifying to listen to the wind howling and screaming, to see the rain thrashing the trees outside and to see debris being blown and hurled around outside.

Living in a sturdy and well constructed building, there was no damage to the structure of the building, but there was minor damage to some areas. The swimming pool took a hit and was filled with all sorts of debris so it will have to be drained and thoroughly cleaned.

Though many people were evacuated from the shanty areas to storm shelters, some weren't, and I can't imagine what it was like for them when the storm hit if they were stuck in a ramshackle house with a flimsy roof and walls.

The mains electricity is still off in my area and has been since the night of the storm, but I am lucky because there is a back-up generator in the building which has been running 24/7 since the night of the storm.

From the news reports I have read, millions of people have no mains electricity or water, we initially had a water supply here in my condo building but it went off 2 days after the storm, though it resumed again a day ago. Whilst it was off they arranged for water trucks to bring water in and pump it into a storage tank in the basement, then we had to go down with buckets or other storage containers and you could either bring it back up to your room by yourself or wait (sometimes hours) for the staff to bring it up to your room.

When I went out the afternoon after the storm there was a lot of traffic about and some roads were gridlocked. The cause? Motorists panic-buying petrol! I passed by 3 petrol stations and they all had massive queues, 100+ cars and dozens of motorbikes outside each one.

And there were massive queues at bank ATM machines, some had about 100 people in the queue, one, in the Metro supermarket at the main Ayala mall, had about 250 people in a queue.

There is plenty of food available in the supermarkets in Cebu City which have all been open since the storm struck, but they are all closing early at 4 pm or 5 pm. There is a shortage of bottled drinking water, I have been out every day since the storm hit to look for drinking water, on approx 20 visits I only managed to buy bottled water on two separate occasions, once in a supermarket in Colon last Sunday, and then yesterday in the Metro supermarket at the Main Ayala mall.

The supermarkets were unable to accept card payments after the storm as their payment systems went offline, so it was strictly cash only. That was still the position as of 2 days ago.

I use Globe who provide the Internet service in my room, and apart from a couple of occasions when it went down for a while it has been very reliable, other foreigners I have talked to have told me they have been without Internet access for days.

The overnight curfew in Cebu City still kicks in at 12 midnight, 5 days ago in Lapu-Lapu it was brought forward from 11 pm to 9 pm, it was reported that it was done to prevent looting though I have not read any reports of any looting incidents.

The main Ayala Mall is still closed, the Ayala central block at the IT Park reopened today with most restaurants and shops inside open. I went to SM Seaside 3 days ago, it was open but only on the first 2 floors, and only a handful of shops and restaurants were open, the majority were still closed. They have opened up free phone-charging areas just outside the main 'inside' entrance (the sheltered area where the taxis drop you off), and I saw about 500 or 600 people sitting down on the ground, in small groups, all huddled around their phones which were plugged into the charging banks.

Some areas in Cebu City have had the mains electricity restored, and a couple of local bar / pubs are open, others are still closed.

I have now experienced two earthquakes and one typhoon, and all were in the Philippines! The first earthquake was in Manila in 1988 or 1989 (I can't remember the exact year), it was on my first visit to the Philippines, the other was in Davao City in 2018. On both occasions I was indoors when they struck. In Manila I was inside a hotel building up on the 20th floor and in Davao City I was inside a condo building up on the 25th floor, and on both occasions the buildings were violently shaking and swaying, though suffered no serious damage. The Davao City earthquake was a magnitude 7. 2. I'm not sure about the scale of the first one in Manila, but it was really terrifying and I thought the hotel building was going to collapse on me and that I was going to die!

Anyway, enough of my rambling.

My thoughts at this time are with all the less fortunate people here who have lost their homes and their businesses, and for the many hundreds who have lost their lives.

NB

This is just from what I have personally seen here in Cebu City, and from what I have seen Cebu City has not suffered too much damage. But there are many reports of serious devastation and damage in other areas of Cebu island and in neighbouring islands.

[GoodEnough]

This story should give a sense of the desperate situation in the parts of the Philippines that were hit by the typhoon. I have friends in Southern Leyte in the municipality of St. Bernard. Their homes were demolished from the effects of wind and a flooding river. They have been living in some sort of evacuation tent. They have been told electric power will not be restored until February 2022. Relatives in Manila want to send them money, but they can't receive it because of the power outage. So, they, or at least some of them, are traveling to Tacloban by bus or jeepneys in order to receive money from the relatives. The trip is more than 150 km. and takes more than three hours. Imagine this happening across the multiple provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon.

The number of regions and localities affected by the recent typhoon is greater than it was for Yolanda, though the latter was a stronger storm. The problem here appears to be getting sufficient assistance—shelter, food, water, electricity, cell phone service and yes, funds—to hundreds of thousands of people scattered over a reasonably broad geographic area. In the immediate aftermath of Yolanda, Tacloban and its environs were deluged with international aid. The US alone sent naval ships to provide fresh drinking water, heavy equipment, hospital services, technical expertise and a raft of other assistance. Not so this time, and the response from the rest of the international community has been fairly tepid. Here in Davao, the city government dispatched food, water and personnel to a couple of the areas, and I suppose that other municipalities—unaffected by Rai—did the same, but the magnitude of the disaster means that significant additional help is required and it has not been forthcoming.

GE.

[Dg8787]

Many prayers and Godspeed to them all. I've been there. Very welcoming and lovely people.

Funny how this board is silent when a calamity strikes and empathy and help are no where to be found. Guys, it is ok to help out.

[El Moreno 92]

This story should give a sense of the desperate situation in the parts of the Philippines that were hit by the typhoon. I have friends in Southern Leyte in the municipality of St. Bernard. Their homes were demolished from the effects of wind and a flooding river. They have been living in some sort of evacuation tent. They have been told electric power will not be restored until February 2022. Relatives in Manila want to send them money, but they can't receive it because of the power outage. So, they, or at least some of them, are traveling to Tacloban by bus or jeepneys in order to receive money from the relatives. The trip is more than 150 km. and takes more than three hours. Imagine this happening across the multiple provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon.

Many prayers and Godspeed to them all. I've been there. Very welcoming and lovely people.

[Dg8787]

This story should give a sense of the desperate situation in the parts of the Philippines that were hit by the typhoon. I have friends in Southern Leyte in the municipality of St. Bernard. Their homes were demolished from the effects of wind and a flooding river. They have been living in some sort of evacuation tent. They have been told electric power will not be restored until February 2022. Relatives in Manila want to send them money, but they can't receive it because of the power outage. So, they, or at least some of them, are traveling to Tacloban by bus or jeepneys in order to receive money from the relatives. The trip is more than 150 km. and takes more than three hours. Imagine this happening across the multiple provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon.

The devastation and hardship is very hard for us westerns to believe and understand.

I know of a girl who had to have someone hand carry money to her relatives in Cebu. They had no water, no food and no electric. House roof was blown away and the landlord does not have money to repair it. Money remittance place were closed down due to lack of electric.

Another family in hard hit Bohol had their house completely blown away. Living in a tent now. Water and food are scarce. I sent them some money thru Cebuana. Local Cebuana would not dish out for wired funds. Instead used their limited supply of currency for pawned items where they make more money on loans than on money transfers. I had to cancel the transfer thru Cebuana and route it thru Palawan Pawnshop. Where they waited 3 hours in line hoping the Palawan generator would not run out of gasoline! Yes, they did get the money to find out price gouging is in effect.

Life is very hard in the typhoon hit areas. Please have some compassion.

[Soapy Smith]

This story should give a sense of the desperate situation in the parts of the Philippines that were hit by the typhoon. I have friends in Southern Leyte in the municipality of St. Bernard. Their homes were demolished from the effects of wind and a flooding river. They have been living in some sort of evacuation tent. They have been told electric power will not be restored until February 2022. Relatives in Manila want to send them money, but they can't receive it because of the power outage. So, they, or at least some of them, are traveling to Tacloban by bus or jeepneys in order to receive money from the relatives. The trip is more than 150 km. and takes more than three hours. Imagine this happening across the multiple provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon.