Worse than Sendong

The true extent of the devastation from typhoon “Pablo” is just starting to emerge, and it’s much worse than previously reported.

Our weather forecasters got it right this time: Pablo proved worse than last year’s killer typhoon “Sendong.”

As recent photographs and video footage show, Pablo destroyed not only nipa huts and other structures made of light materials but also concrete buildings, including schools and gymnasiums used as evacuation centers. The communities look like they were hit by a tsunami.

Survivors relate that mudslides and floods were not the only culprits. In several areas, winds were so powerful they blew away concrete structures.

Reports initially focused on the town of New Bataan in Compostela Valley – one of the worst hit areas with a high death toll – because the town is relatively more accessible.

Sendong, which struck in mid-December 2011, unleashed the worst destruction in urban centers, particularly Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. In the aftermath, both cities remained accessible by land, air and sea.

But relief workers told me Pablo wreaked havoc in several remote areas in Mindanao, which were cut off from supply routes and remain hard to reach even by helicopter.

The other day I listened on radio to a resident of a village in Cateel, one of several towns in Davao Oriental where details of the horrific devastation from Pablo are belatedly emerging.

The woman recalled looking with anxiety at village children begging in the streets after the typhoon, and feeling grateful that her children had not been forced into the streets.

But it didn’t take long before the disaster struck home. The woman’s voice broke as she related that her children had also been reduced to begging in the streets. Between sobs, she said she no longer knew what to do, as she appealed to her relatives in Luzon to come to her aid.

Even if those relatives were listening and wanted to help, they wouldn’t know how to go about it. With roads and bridges destroyed, power and telecommunications services down or spotty, and few safe places for aircraft to land, logistics in the typhoon-battered areas is a nightmare for relief workers.

Bernard Kerblat, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, spent nearly a week going around the devastated areas. Last year he also spent time in the disaster-hit cities after Sendong. The situation after Pablo, Kerblat told me, “is much worse.”

Kerblat isn’t using the word “crisis” yet, but that’s what the picture is starting to look like in Compostela, Davao Oriental and several other places.

Pablo can also have longer-term ramifications for the affected people. Wind, rain, mud and flooding destroyed vast tracts of banana plantations and other farms – principal sources of livelihood in the affected areas. It takes an average of 15 to18 months for a banana plant to bear fruit. Considering the extent of the typhoon devastation, some quarters estimate that it will take up to four years to fully rehabilitate the plantations. How do displaced farm workers earn a living before then?

The national government has shown reluctance to call for international help, but the United Nations has sounded out an alert. Even before the SOS, several countries had quickly committed assistance: Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand and the United States. Other governments also quickly responded to the UN alert.

The aid will have to be sustained for many months, and our own government must provide it. In Cagayan de Oro earlier this year, many victims of Sendong still had not found new homes or livelihood opportunities. Pablo’s victims will require even more assistance.

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WIZARDRY: On the brighter side, this being the season of joy, those who want to escape bad news can spend three hours at the IMAX at SM Mall of Asia to watch the first installment of “The Hobbit” trilogy, in 3-D.

Home entertainment has spoiled me. In the past two decades, the only movies I have watched on the big screen have been J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and then “Avatar” for my first IMAX 3-D experience, also at the MOA. “The Hobbit” made me go back to the IMAX.

The classic plot revolving around good versus evil, light against dark, makes for a riveting story. Especially at the hands of a master storyteller, England’s Tolkien. And especially when brought to the big screen by a master filmmaker, New Zealand’s Peter Jackson.

As in the Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Jackson has done justice to “The Hobbit,” the novel, which many Tolkien fans enjoy reading two or three times. 

Once again, Jackson has made Tolkien’s Middle Earth come alive vividly, incidentally showcasing New Zealand’s spectacular rugged beauty.

New Zealand Ambassador Reuben Levenmore, a rugby player who I suspect is no fan of Tolkien or fantasy movies, looked like he enjoyed “The Hobbit” at the IMAX presentation by Warner Brothers. Or maybe the popcorn pumped him up through nearly three hours of his first 3-D movie experience.

“Sir Peter Jackson and his NZ-made films represent a creativity and can-do attitude that Kiwis take pride in. The Hobbit is a stunning 3-D tourism commercial for our country,” the ambassador told me.

Hollywood has done a lot to spread American culture around the world. Peter Jackson is doing something similar for New Zealand.

Watch his latest creation – and enjoy film wizardry.