Exactly one year ago, the most powerful tropical cyclone to ever make landfall hit the Philippines. More than 6,000 people were killed. More than one million homes were damaged or destroyed.
Since then, survivors in the worst-hit regions around Leyte and Samar provinces have been working to rebuild.
But only a fraction of the necessary work has been done. Housing remains one of the major priorities.
Aid agencies estimate there are still about 25,000 people living in temporary shelters that were designed to be used only for a couple of months.
“It’s very hot, there are a lot of people crowded into a very small place, and worst of all for these people there’s a very uncertain future,” said Plan International’s Adam Cathro. “They don’t know how long they can stay, they don’t know where they can go, they don’t know how they can earn a livelihood.”
Aid agencies estimate there are still about 25,000 people living in temporary shelters that were designed to be used only for a couple of months.
Many rely on fishing for their income. So they have rebuilt their homes along the shoreline, right in the path of the next typhoon.
“And there certainly will be one,” said Cathro. “Something like 20 to 25 typhoons on average hit the Philippines every year, so there’s going to be another huge storm. But it’s around 95,000 people living in homes that have been assessed as not able to withstand another major typhoon.”
He says agencies like his are working on the basis that it will take five years to get the Philippines back on its feet. In the meantime, many more typhoons will come.
