Typhoon Haiyan 2013
- Yang Siew
- Aug 11, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 17, 2023
In Nov 2013, with wind speeds up to 315km/hr, Haiyan became one of the deadliest Philippine typhoons on record, killing at least 6,300
A Meaningful Morning ...
The morning of Typhoon Haiyan was a meaningful one. Daddy was busy planning how to raise funds for disaster victims, Mummy was printing pictures of the disaster, and Mandy and I were putting everything into a fundraising poster. By 11am, the poster was ready to be displayed at the Terminal 3 office.
90% of Tacloban and its airport were devastated. In between communicating with Red Cross Philippines and figuring out how best to get to the disaster site; Daddy completed two of his flying duties, raised more than $35,000, and finished off his base check with Mummy standing-by outside STC gate, waiting to rush him to a midnight departure flight to Manila. This was not the first time. Like he always said: “We are the “SIA people”, a benevolent community”. This was how the SIA people juggled around their duties to help the less fortunate.
-- Samson Yang
Challenges
There were many challenges behind the scenes during the fundraising campaign for Typhoon Haiyan:
1. The biggest charity scandal plagued the Philippines days before Typhoon Haiyan.
2. We were in the midst of a local fundraising as well as our Myanmar commitment; we had no manpower, let alone enough people to shoulder the daunting task of implementing audits to ensure that donors’ funds would be properly discharged.
3. No clean water, no electricity. But to help the children of Tacloban, Nigel and I packed our bags and set off for Tacloban - the epicentre of the disaster.
The Journey
Morphy's Law! Simulator broke down during my Base Check. The session stretched beyond scheduled departure of the last flight to Manila. Fortunately, the flight was delayed out of Singapore and Nigel and I managed to get onboard.
Tacloban’s airport was badly damaged and closed.Therefore,we had to fly from Manila to Cebu instead.
Thanks to Nigel who coordinated with Hope Worldwide Philippines. Due to his coordination, we were on the ferry to Layette Island by noon. Hope WW PI brought a jeep across the strait, and after a few hours on the ferry, we were on the Layette coastal road to Tacloban.
The journey was long and sad. Children were waving by the road side crying for food but we could not stop to help as the Tacloban was in need of greater help and it was another 4 hours from the city.
Typhoon Haiyan landed on Tacloban City from the Pacific Ocean. As we approached Tacloban, the devastating impact of the typhoon only grew.
We finally arrived at the city around 9pm— it was a city of darkness, with just a few isolated fires accompanied by the smell of burning corpses. We were supposed to stay with the church, but the roof had collapsed and we were relocated to the pastor’s sister's house.
Everyone was exhausted by the time we arrived, and before we knew it, we were fast asleep and snoring like an orchestra symphony. I was rudely awoken at around 3am by mosquitos, as my eyelids, lips, fingers, any exposed skin were bitten. Knowing that I could not continue to sleep, I took a moonlight stroll around the neighbourhood. Dogs were howling everywhere, yearning for their missing masters. It was a very sad and eerie scene.
As soon as dawn broke, we went on a city recce. Ships were swept into villages, and cars were smashed into houses.
Six metre (20ft) sea waves were pummeling the island’s coastline with gales blowing at 195 mph. The water left a trail of destruction never before seen in the Philippines. The howling cyclone ravaged everything along its way, reducing them into matchwood and rubble.
Children were ransacking the debris for their love ones.
The orphaned children were very vulnerable-- especially the girls. We joined our partner in creating a Child Safe Space (CFS). Thishelped to bring them closer together and also helped them to tide through their grief with distractions such as games and Christmas + birthday celebrations.
Meanwhile, Samson was back at home preparing a CGI introduction for the video titled "The Rock & A Hard Place". The photos and script were put together during my subsequent flight duties. We were proud that all our primary pilot duties were not compromised during this ordeal and all flights were still flown.
Video: The Rock and a Hard Place
The crisis allowed us to share how time management, professional commitment, courage and family bonding could be tastefully put together by an SIA family. We hope that by sharing what went on behind the scenes, more families will be inspired to participate in future projects like this.
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