What is the shelter situation for people affected by Typhoon Haiyan?
There are approximately one million homes damaged by the typhoon. An emergency shelter cluster assessment in nine municipalities in Leyte province found damage to 90 per cent of buildings. The majority of homes have damaged roofs because of the strong winds from the typhoon. According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development re-housing displaced people will cost approximately $6 million
From November 11 to 14, our team travelled on Leyte Island, visiting Tacloban, Ormoc and other affected communities, where we quickly saw people starting to rebuild their homes.
What is the emergency shelter cluster?
In international responses to humanitarian crises, some sectors have in the past benefited from having clearly mandated lead agencies. Accordingly, the lack of a lead agency has repeatedly led to ad hoc, unpredictable humanitarian responses, with inevitable capacity and response gaps in some areas.
So the UN has introduced nine thematic clusters, including one focused on emergency shelter, for coordination at both the field and global levels. Each of the field-level clusters is led by a UN agency functioning as “provider of last resort” and which is accountable to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator. Clusters can be activated in response to both sudden emergencies as well as ongoing emergencies.
More information on the clusters can be found here: http://business.un.org/en/documents/249.
If everything was destroyed, how were people in the Philippines managing to rebuild their homes?
People were being very resourceful, using every bit of old metallic sheeting and new materials that they could purchase in the small number of open stores. Very few were using plastic sheeting. They were showing incredible resilience through what we call a process of “self-recovery.”
Were people evacuated to temporary evacuation centres before Typhoon Haiyan struck?
Yes, the figures show that evacuation plans worked well in the lead up to Typhoon Haiyan, compared to recent disasters in the Philippines, such as Typhoon Bopha. The local authorities and communities and CARE’s partner, Accord, helped with the evacuation of people in several communities. The death toll for Typhoon Haiyan was lower than expected, given the severity of the storm surges and extreme winds. In certain parts of Leyte, like Tacloban, the storm surges were not expected, so the evacuation centres near the coast were devastated by the typhoon.
Why are tents not going to be used for this disaster?
In this disaster, the majority of the homes lost only their roofs, so people naturally would prefer to rebuild their own homes than to live in tents. They tend to use iron sheeting over their damaged homes, or use plastic until more permanent repairs could be made.
What is the most urgent need related to shelter?
The most urgent needs are for roofing materials such as iron sheeting and associated tools and materials such as hammers, nails and timber. As the vast majority of palm trees were knocked down because of the severe winds, there is a great deal of wood available. It would be advantageous to find ways to use this wood. In order to make this a reality, we should determine who owns the property that the trees were on and wood cutting tools are needed.
How is the plan for shelters developed?
CARE works closely with the shelter cluster (which includes several international NGOs, and is co- lead by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Department of Social Welfare and Development) to develop the shelter strategy. The strategy lays out a plan to start as soon as possible with early recovery, which allows people affected by the disaster to develop their livelihoods, rather than struggling to meet their basic needs. The CI shelter strategy has a holistic approach which also takes into consideration other sectors and cross cutting issues such as water, sanitation and hygiene, livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, etc. Our experience has shown that good shelter programming should consider the needs of women and girls, especially more vulnerable single woman households.
Is there a particular story about shelter that struck you?
In Tacloban, I met a man, clearly in state of shock, who lost 11 close relatives and his home by the sea. He is a municipal government worker who now lives in his workplace, the town hall. He was at home during the storm and survived the first wave by running to the second floor of his house. Then the wind blew off the roof and terrified him. He went downstairs, then the second wave came, and he was forced to go upstairs again. He lost count of how many times he repeated this cycle.
Please click here to read more about CARE's response to Super Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines.
About CARE: CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes and helping communities prepare for disasters. CARE's past responses in the Philippines have included Typhoon Bopha in 2012 and Typhoon Ketsana in 2009. Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE has more than six decades of experience delivering emergency aid during times of crisis. Our emergency responses focus on the needs of the most vulnerable populations, particularly girls and women. Last year CARE worked in 84 countries and reached more than 83 million people around the world.