The official casualty count stopped at 6,000 a few months ago, as the possibility loomed that the death toll from Super Typhoon Yolanda could reach a police officer’s initial estimate of 10,000. Residents and local officials have reported that bodies continue to be found daily in the typhoon-hit areas. Many more remain missing and bodies are feared to have been washed out to sea.
As pressing as the need to account for all the dead and missing is to assist the living in rebuilding their lives. Six months after Yolanda unleashed her fury and spawned a killer storm surge in Leyte and Samar, tens of thousands of people remain homeless, with about 130,000 housed in tents. Disease, malnutrition and prostitution are just some of the problems that have cropped up at the evacuation centers.
An estimated 4.1 million people were displaced by Yolanda as it barreled across the Visayas on Nov. 8 last year. Said to be the most powerful typhoon to make landfall in recorded history, Yolanda flattened not only homes and buildings but also coconut plantations and other farms that provided livelihood for thousands of residents.
The international community responded with a massive outpouring of sympathy and assistance. Several governments have vowed that their aid will be sustained, although the assistance committed have fallen short of the figure hoped for by the United Nations.
The government’s rehabilitation effort has been marred by political bickering. Yesterday, amid criticism of slow progress, former senator Panfilo Lacson lamented that two Cabinet members were stalling the rehabilitation effort. Lacson did not identify the two, who are presumably affecting his job as rehabilitation czar.
Evacuation centers are reportedly inadequate while new housing sites have also been hounded by controversy. By most accounts, residents are doing their best to speed up their recovery from the tragedy. But power and water supply remain intermittent, dampening commercial activity and adding to the discomforts of daily life.
Within a month the rainy season is expected to start. Even with a strong El Niño phenomenon, heavy monsoon rains and powerful typhoons can hit the country soon, making life even more miserable for the evacuees. Six months after Yolanda, reconstruction needs speeding up.