Typhoon Haiyan recovery stalled, Edmonton Filipinos say

One year after a devastating typhoon killed thousands in the Philippines, little has changed for the survivors who must deal with the aftermath, say members of Edmonton's Filipino community. 

I thought I was ready. I thought I knew what to expect, but  I was wrong- Erlinda Tan, upon visiting the Philippines

“The devastation, I can't believe it,” said Erlinda Tan who recently returned from visiting family in Tacloban, the city that suffered the worst damage from Typhoon Haiyan. 

“I'd seen pictures, video online,” she said. “I thought I was ready. I thought I knew what to expect, but  I was wrong.”

Tacloban, she said, seems no closer to recovery after one year.

“The only difference is there are no more dead bodies in the street,” she said. “There's no more debris.”

More than 6,300 died

The storm, called Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, slashed across the islands with winds reaching 315 km/h, making it not only the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded. It was also the deadliest.

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More than 6,300 Filipinos were killed, while 11 million others were displaced or affected in other ways.

Nathaniel Motel, 21, and his five siblings survived the typhoon and its aftermath.

“We had no electricity for four months,” he said. “It was really horrible.” 

His sister Mary Faith Motel, 15, recalls, “If we wanted good water, we had to walk two streets over and carry it all the way to our house.”

Typhoon unites family

But the Motels could be counted among the lucky few, as the typhoon ended up reuniting the family.

Their mother, Marie Antoinette Motel, lives in Canada, where she has been working for six years to bring her children and husband north. Shortly after the typhoon, she learned the federal government would expedite her family's visa applications on humanitarian grounds.

“I was counting days and nights we could be together,” she said.

Others are far worse off.

Countless homes in the typhoon's path remain without walls or roofs, while hulking shells of massive ships are still where they washed up.

Only one hospital has opened. Every churchyard has a mass grave.

“People still live in tents, hundreds of them,” Tan said. “People still live in evacuation centres. We can't argue our government isn't able to handle a calamity of that magnitude.”

No more international attention

Now, over the past six months, much of the international aid has dried up.

Despite the scope of the disaster, it's fallen off the radar for most Canadians, said the Canadian Red Cross. The aid agency is no longer collecting donations for typhoon victims.

On her visit, Tan took along items gathered by her church, school children and work colleagues to distribute to grateful survivors.

“Basic things just to get them started,” she said. “Some haven't even started yet and it's been a year."

But Tan acknowledges for many it will take years for life to get even close to normal.