Super Typhoon Yolanda by the numbers
After a decade, Super Typhoon Yolanda, also known as Haiyan, remains one of the deadliest nightmares to ever hit the Philippines as a category 5 storm.
As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of this horrific event, let's revisit some of the most haunting numbers that continue to resonate in the lives of many Filipinos.
Rainfall duration
On Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, typhoon Yolanda made landfall in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, at 4:40 a.m. After making six more landfalls, Yolanda, with sustained winds of more than 150 mph, left the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) in the afternoon of November 9. It dissipated on Nov. 11, 2013.
Casualties
Yolanda was one of the most powerful storms to make landfall in recorded history. According to NDRRMC, it claimed more than 6,300 lives, noting that most deaths were due to drowning and trauma. Out of the reported deaths, 5,902 or 93% came from Region VIII.
Additionally, there are "uncounted dead" when the counting was halted during the recovery of the casualties. On its ninth anniversary last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that it is still unclear how many people perished in the devastating storm.
"That is why we continue to commemorate Yolanda and we continue to grieve our dead. Because we not only grieve (for) the dead that are here, but we also grieve for those who we do not even know how many they are, who they are, and where they are," Marcos said during last year's Yolanda Commemoration at the Holy Cross Memorial Garden in Tacloban.
Injured and missing
The central islands of Leyte and Samar, as well as the nearby provinces in eastern Visayas, were among those most impacted. The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) reported that 1,062 people went missing and 28,626 people were injured.
Damaged houses
The typhoon left a trail of destruction. Over 1.1 million homes were reduced to rubble, leaving many—an estimated 9.53 million individuals—without a roof over their heads.
Cost of damage and losses
The Post-Disaster Needs Assessments' report states that Typhoon Yolanda's effect cost the Philippines P132.4 billion, with damages amounting to P89.6 billion and losses at P42.8 billion.
Meanwhile, estimated sectoral damages are as follows:
- Infrastructure sector: P9,584,596,305.69
- Damages: P9,584,596,305.69
- Losses: P2,614,192,306.24
- Productive sector (Agriculture and Fisheries sector, Mining and Quarrying, Trade, Industry, and Services and Tourism)
- Damages: P21,833,622,975.09
- Losses: P29,530,908,491.52
- Social Sector (Education, Health, Housing):
- Damages: P55,110,825,740.69
- Losses: P6,219,786,649.55
- Cross-Sectoral Damage (Government and DRRM, Macroeconomics, Social Impact Assessment and Environment):
- Damages: P3,069,023,613.41
- Losses: P4,394,742,578.59
All these numbers prove that the wrath of Typhoon Yolanda knew no bounds. It covered the country's infrastructure; water, power, and drainage systems; telecommunication providers; health facilities; agricultural sources; and most importantly, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.
The massive numbers serve as a lasting tribute to one of the worst periods in our country's climate history. And while the Philippines has bounced forward with new houses and livelihoods for the affected, as well as reconstruction of damaged bridges, roads, and buildings, the memory of the calamity continues to sting those who lost their loved ones whose remains may never have been found.
“The feeling of loss, the hurt is still here,” survivor Juvilyn Tanega told AFP as she recalled losing her six children, husband, mother, sister, three nieces and nephews to the deadly typhoon.
“I try to be strong. I remain motivated, but life is not permanent.”
