Why was Haiyan so devastating?

It is the second deadliest typhoon-- after 1881’s Haiphong claimed around 20,000 lives - ever reported in the Philippines. Described as a “Super Typhoon” and sometimes referred to as Super Typhoon Yolanda, it took 6,300 lives and caused just shy of $3 billion in damage.

It had a maximum 10-minute sustained wind speed of 145 miles per hour and reached wind speeds of 195 miles per hour.

What happened after Typhoon Haiyan hit?

In is aftermath, reporters described the affected Tacloban city as a “war zone”, where only 100 of the city’s 1,300 police reported for duty. People began looting grocery stores and malls, and then other peoples’ homes. The ensuing humanitarian crisis saw 1.8 million people become homeless, and an additional 6 million people displaced from their homes.

Did the Philippines ever recover from Haiyan?

Recovery efforts began as the government and other donors constructed resettlement sites to help those who had lost everything in the storm. Resettlement sites helped the Philippines’ recovery, but displaced farmers that had been working on the lands for generations.

Many farmers did not qualify for the resettlement sites, forcing them to live in makeshift houses constructed of corrugated sheet metal and wood, often on lands prone to flooding.