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Tacloban City: Three weeks after Haiyan

Homelessness and rubble dominate the Philippines city which suffered the worst devastation in the November 8 typhoon.

A Typhoon Haiyan survivor carrying her clothes looks at a mannequin(***)s head which was put on a stick as she walks through the ruins of Tacloban City, on November 22, 2013.

By Na Son Nguyen

Published On 27 Nov 2013

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Tacloban, Philippines – It has been nearly three weeks since Typhoon Haiyan, the world’s biggest-ever storm to make landfall, struck the central Philippines – killing more than 5,200 people, displacing 4.4 million and destroying $547m in crops and infrastructure.

In Leyte Province, 70 to 80 percent of the area was destroyed. Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, where five-metre waves flattened nearly everything in their path, suffered more loss of life than any other Philippine city. Outside the town centre, in a hillside cemetery, city workers have dug a mass gravesite which stretches along 100 metres.

Much of Tacloban has been turned to rubble, leaving many survivors homeless and dependent on aid. Philippine Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said on November 14 that it may take six weeks before the first typhoon-hit towns get their electric power back.

Visiting the city, it is clear that – despite the help of the international community – it will take a very long time for the town to recover.

A devastated area is seen from the air, during the first commercial flight after services re-opened between Manila and Tacloban on November 21, 2013.
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Typhoon Haiyan survivors stand in the rain and watch as people from their destroyed neighborhood search for dead bodies in the rubble in Tacloban City, on November 22, 2013.
A survivor covers his nose as he rides past bags containing corpses in the streets near the airport in Tacloban City, Leyte, on November 23, 2013.
A heavy truck washed ashore in a residential area remains unmoved two weeks after the storm. The photo was taken in Tacloban City, on November 23, 2013.
Policemen load the bodies of typhoon victims recovered from the rubble in downtown Tacloban City, on November 23, 2013.
Typhoon Haiyan survivors wait for their evacuation flight at the airport in Tacloban City on November 21, 2013.
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A soldier walks by a destroyed building as a US Marine Force Sea Hawk helicopter lands at the airport in Tacloban City, on November 21, 2013. Humanitarian efforts from all over the world, led by the United States, are now in central Philippines following the November 8 Typhoon Haiyan that displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Typhoon survivors take shelter inside a Catholic Church in Tacloban city, on November 22, 2013.
In this photo taken on Friday November 22, 2013, a Filipino boy is seen standing in what used to be the central market of Tacloban City - now mostly rubble.
Typhoon Haiyan survivor Benjamin Villaruel, 47, is seen holding his daughter as he cooks dinner at a place where his family takes shelter in Tacloban City, on Friday November 22, 2013.
A Filipino man carries a tin roof as he walks pass the debris on Saturday, November 23, 2013 in Tacloban City.
A Philippino boy plays golf wth a club he found in the rubble in downtown Tacloban City, on November 22, 2013.
Typhoon Haiyan survivors sit inside their candlelit home in Tacloban City, on Thursday, November 21, 2013.
Typhoon survivors pose for photos while buying some accesories at a downtown public market as businesses slowly open in Tacloban City, on November 22, 2013.