Disaster of Epic Proportions

Disease fears

Relief Workers Risk Their Minds

TACLOBAN - These were a few news headlines that I used to open a story I wrote about the Haiti earthquake in 2010. Now, as I sit here on a plane bound for the Philippines, I fear the same will again be true.

The devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) is truly massive. Much like the Haiti earthquake, it has the dubious distinction of being one of the worst recorded natural disasters in history.

Within hours of the typhoon, even before the winds had died down, the humanitarian community was already on the ground responding to the immediate needs of the worst affected people. For us, we had Ivan Thomas, Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) Coordinator deployed from Dubai and operating on the ground in less than 24 hours. As the ETC, our role is to provide humanitarian workers with the communications tools they need to carry out their life-saving work.

In 48 hours, Eric Kiruhura from World Vision International was deployed as well as Karen Barsamian, Rob Buurveld, Aleksandar Dulovic and Neil Murphy-Dewar from WFP FITTEST. (You know when this many FITTEST are deployed at once, that the situation on the ground is not looking good...) Teams from ETC partners emergency.lu and Ericsson Response are also on their way to support this massive operation.

I had a chat with Eric before he deployed to hear some of his thoughts. "The devastation is great and damage to infrastructure is massive," he told me. "There is a clear requirement to go in and restore services."

"From what I have seen so far from information I've gone through and from TV, one of the biggest challenges will be déjà vu of the tsunami in Indonesia. Seeing again tremendous suffering of the people; seeing kids go hungry and mothers unable to provide for their families is the most harrowing experience. As humanitarian workers, we are there to support the people and ensure aid reaches where it's required. As the ETC we support NGOs, the UN and the government to be more effective in work which will go a long way in negating suffering and saving lives."

Right now, three ETC responders are in Tacloban, one of the worst hit areas, providing basic voice communications and internet connectivity services to the relief community using small satellite terminals. This afternoon, equipment for the ETC Response Solution – with the emergency.lu Rapid Deployment kit and Ericsson Response WIDER – arrived in Tacloban and will soon be providing more robust services to the community. A further four common operational areas have been identified for establishment of services.

It's now six days after the disaster struck and the amount of aid and aid workers arriving in the country is increasing daily. Recovery from such devastation is going to take a very long time and for those who lost members of their family, well they may never fully recover from the heartache.

By Mariko Hall, ETC Philippines