Typhoon victims need slippers, pails, batteries

BASEY, Samar , Philippines   â€” Simple everyday items such as tabo (water dipper) and slippers are very much prized by survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

“You tend to overlook bringing these things, usually you think about food and water and clothing,” said Hazel Zeta Dy-Tioco, an executive of a multinational pharmaceutical firm who rushed here to help her relatives and town mates.

Aside from the usual food and water supplies, candles, flashlight, rubber boots, cooking utensils, spices for cooking, transistor radios and batteries are much in demand here.

Carpentry tools such as hammers, saws and nails are also needed for rebuilding and repairs, Tioco said.

“It’s frustrating to reach a disaster area and find out items the people there really needed and not having them with you,” she added.

Tioco is aggressively lobbying for aid to be immediately sent here. She said her hometown suffered like Tacloban City and also withstood the same level of Yolanda’s fury.

“Basey is not even in the crisis map drawn up by the NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council) to identify priority areas to get relief goods,” Tioco lamented.

Tioco became frustrated and worried for her family and town mates. She took the initiative of purchasing basic necessities, asking for her friends and relatives in Manila to donate relief goods.

In coordination with The STAR’s Operation Damayan, Tioco undertook the delivery of the relief goods straight into Samar on Friday but was much delayed by the bottleneck at Matnog Port in Sorsogon for those taking the land and sea route to rush to help those in Samar and Leyte provinces.