Photo courtesy of Shine Landayan
Jose Olfindo (left), Rufa Doria (middle left), Grace Halili (middle), Fernando Landayan (middle right) and Domingo Doria (right) of the Filipino-Canadian Association Lethbridge, Alberta package relief goods and donations to be sent to the victims of the sequence of typhoons in the Philippines on Nov. 19, 2020.
A Filipino living in Lethbridge is fortunate his relatives are safe following a super typhoon in the Philippines. Nestor Maristaza said on Nov. 8, 2020, briefly losing contact with relatives in the Philippines while preparing for Typhoon Goni, also known as Super Typhoon Rolly.
“While the super typhoon was having its landfall, my whole family and I were praying fervently for the safety of all our relatives and all the Bicolanos,” said Maristaza.
Bicol is a region in the Philippines in the southern part of Luzon affected by Typhoon Goni.
As of Nov. 16, 2020, over 500,000 families, which included two million individuals, were affected across eight regions due to the super typhoon, according to AHA Center (ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management).
According to the same AHA Centre report, over a million individuals were displaced.
“The destruction left by the typhoon was disastrous to everyone,” said Maristaza. “Most power lines and posts were down and were uprooted, lots of families were left with no roof on their houses as it was blown by the strong winds.”
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AHA Centre also reported 25 deaths, 399 injured and six missing individuals.
“It’s really heartbreaking,” said Arlene Visser on Nov. 8, 2020, also a Filipino living in Lethbridge. “You see people without houses to stay.”
Visser said that the pandemic has made it more difficult for her immediate families and friends in the Philippines, in addition to the typhoon.
She is concerned with five immediate families living in a single household, only using curtains to separate those suspected of having with COVID-19 from the rest of the family members.
However, because of limited financial resources, Visser wishes she could do more.
“You cannot help everyone,” said Visser. “You just have to contribute what you can.”
The Philippines Humanitarian Country Team launched a plan to aid people, especially children and women living in the provinces most affected by the disaster with time-critical recovery, according to a Nov. 9, 2020 report by ReliefWeb.
However, as part of the 2020 Pacific Typhoon Season, another typhoon [Typhoon VAMCO], not long after Typhoon Goni, made landfall on the Philippines.
As of Nov. 15, over 1.5 million people were affected before the typhoon made landfall in Vietnam, according to ECHO (European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations).
As a result of Typhoon VAMCO, 350,000 people were evacuated in Vietnam.
The UN Officer for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported over $250 million in agricultural damage and $165 million in infrastructure in the Philippines due to the series of typhoons on Nov.17, 2020.
The Filipino Canadian Association Lethbridge Alberta, or FCALA, is sending an initial help of $500 and relief goods to those affected by the floods [due to the typhoons], according to Rufa Doria, president of the association, on Nov. 15, 2020.
The association is raising more funds and relief goods to send to the Philippines.
