LIC/NEE Typhoon Haiyan

Question 1

Temporal setting

Answer 1

• Formed on 2nd November 2013
• Categorised as super typhoon on November 6th
• Made landfall on 8th November at 4:40am
• Reached Vietnam on 10th November but weakened to a severe tropical storm

Question 2

Spatial setting

Answer 2

• Philippines is a NEE and archipelago made up of over 7000 islands in the South China Sea
• The country regularly experiences powerful typhoons that form over the Pacific and move from east to west over the Philippines

Question 3

Risk and vulnerability of the population

Answer 3

• Much of population live in extreme poverty
• Poorly constructed buildings
• Tacloban had grown from 76,000-221,000 in 40 yrs
• Country was still recovering from damage caused by Bohol earthquake in October 2013
• Government underestimated the storm surge

Question 4

Political impacts

Answer 4

• Some government officials were killed from the storm
• The government underestimated the effects of the storm and their responses were slow

Question 5

Environmental impacts

Answer 5

• 130,000 tonnes of rice destroyed
• Trees uprooted
• Barge punctured and 85,000 litres of oil leaked into the sea.
• Low lying stretches of coastline east of Tacloban were washed away

Question 6

Social impacts

Answer 6

• 2 million made homeless and 6 million displaced
• > 6300 died
• 11.5 million affected
• 90% of houses in Tacloban were destroyed whilst being used as an evacuation centre

Question 7

Economic impacts

Answer 7

• 77% of farmers and 74% of fishermen lost their main source of income
• $2.86 bn of damage
• $85 million lost from farm damage
• 453 flights cancelled
• Production of coconut oil decreased for several months

Question 8

Short term responses

Answer 8

• British charity “Shelter Box” provided people with water purification equipment, blankets, cooking implements and solar powered lights
• The UN appealed £190 million for emergency aid
• 1215 evacuation centres set up
• Widespread looting and violence led government to deploy soldiers to restore law and order
• Social media used for aid and volunteers
• Red Cross supplied > 1.1 million with clean water

Question 9

Long term responses

Answer 9

• By April 2014, services restored to 560 schools, 220 rural health centres and 30 hospitals
• 1500km of roads +1100km of drainage canals repaired
• Schemes set up to give cash for training or cash for work which involved
  - Cleaning debris and managing waste
  - Repairing infrastructure
  - Replanting mangroves

Question 10

Evaluation

Answer 10

• People didn’t realise how severe the typhoon would be with the storm surge
• Criticism in terms of the speed in which aid was distributed
• Some NGOs could have liased more effectively with local government and organisations and made use of their local knowledge and expertise.