After super typhoon Rai, with Phil name Odette, a category 5 storm equivalent to a category 2 Atlantic hurricane, exited the Philippine area of responsibility last Dec 18, 2021, it left behind a huge trail of destruction (9 million people seriously affected, damage estimated at P17.7B, 1.5 million homes damaged, wide areas of communications and power outages in several provinces), displacement (338,000 evacuated, 7 missing) and death (406 dead). It was the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines last year.
The UN launched a campaign to raise $107.2 million in aid for victims but the UN Resident Coordinator in the Philippines, Gustovo Gonzalez, said in a virtual meeting last Thursday “One month since the first landfall of Super typhoon Rai we realize that we have badly underestimated the scale of devastation”
He said only 40% of the aid had been received an more resources were needed to avoid the typhoon becoming a forgotten crisis. The scale of the disaster, lack of power and communications in some areas, and depleted government coffers after the Covid-19 response have hampered efforts to distribute aid. An Omicron-fuelled surge in infections is forcing relief workers into isolation and persistent rain in the affected areas is making travel more difficult and relief efforts miserable. Gonzales said, “We are talking about a crisis within a crisis.”
Scientists have long warned that typhoons are strengthening more rapidly as the world becomes warmer because of human-driven climate change.
Typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones — which are essentially the same weather event but in different parts of the world — are producing more rainfall, moving more slowly once they make landfall and generating larger storm surges because of climate change.
A recent study by researchers at the Shenzhen Institute of Meteorological Innovation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong said that typhoons in Asia could have double their destructive power by the end of the century. They already last between two and nine hours longer and travel an average of 100 km (62 miles) further inland than they did four decades ago.
Against this backdrop of terrible destruction, displacement, death caused by a super typhoon, a plea for more aid to add to the multi-million-dollar UN aid campaign, and warnings from scientists that super typhoons will double their destructive power due to climate change, there are many stories of ordinary Canadians rising to the occasion by donating aid to typhoon-stricken areas.
This article is about one such Canadian, Carmen Villarin, who recently retired in Palawan, Philippines, after a lengthy career as a Chartered Accountant, hotel management consultant, Montessori school owner in Ontario.
Carmen started a Gofundme campaign (www.gofundme.com/f/help-nasuduan-palawan-rebuild-after-typhoon-rai?qid=7f10d9144a70271e9403645296cf77bd) and has so far raised C$4,000 which she used to purchase a large amount of rice and construction supplies to rebuild a small fishing and farming community in Nasuduan situated near the mouth of Ulugan Bay in Palawan’s west coast, just 2-hour 28 minutes northwest from Puerto Princesa City and 25 minutes away from the world-famous underground river.
The people of Palawan very rarely experienced typhoons in the past and normally build their homes of exceptionally light materials. So now that the path of Philippine typhoons shifted to Palawan due to climate change the destruction was horrendous. Ninety-five percent of the homes and structures in Nasuduan, including their church and barangay health center donated and built by Carmen’s parents for the fisherfolk and farmers of Nasuduan, were demolished or severely damaged by Rai.
Typhoon Rai destroyed the community of Nasuduan, but it did not weaken the spirit of Carmen and the people of Nasuduan. They said their prayers of thanks that the typhoon did not kill anybody in Nasuduan, rolled up their sleeves, started building a typhoon resilient church, health center and typhoon resilient homes. These are some of their pictures they shared to show that prayers, a typhoon resilient mentality and a little money can go a long way.
Nasuduan homes flattened
Carmen infront of damaged church
Damaged health center
Carmen distributing rice
Nasuduan residents thanking Canadian donors for contsruction materials and rice
Donated funds was also used to buy materials to make CHB to be used to build stronger homes in Nasuduan
Picture of me in Palawan with Carmen, her two sons, my mother and cousin.