Disaster in the Philippines: Typhoon Haiyan

January 2014

It has become the most deadly natural disaster in country’s history. Typhoon Haiyan is known in the Philippines as Yolanda, and was the 25th typhoon to hit the country in 2013.

When the typhoon made landfall at Samar on 7 November, 315km/h winds caused what was described by local people as ‘a wall of wind and rain’. The winds near Tacloban city in Leyte province, which was one of the worst affected areas, blew water ashore over 7.5m high. As much of the city is less than 5m above sea level meaning that most of the city was completely engulfed by water.

The government issued a major typhoon warning and evacuated thousands of people to shelters prior to the typhoon making landfall but Haiyan was unique in both scale and impact and it went beyond the capacity of preparations. In some areas the risks from the typhoon were not fully understood. Even some of the shelters that were considered safe were totally destroyed.