(For information and updates from November 7-15, please click here. See also: Timeline: AFP deployment to Yolanda-affected areas from November 8 to 15, 2013, Timeline: AFP deployment to Yolanda-affected areas from November 16 to 17, 2013, and Field Bulletin No. 6 which explains the daily strategic thrusts of the government in its efforts. The Matrix of Updates on the status of municipalities and cities has expanded to include Biliran, Aklan, Capiz, Iloilo, Leyte, Palawan, Samar).

Daily Updates:

November 21, 2013

See Comprehensive Timeline: Yolanda Relief Efforts on the Official Gazette. This matrix indicates a summary of weekly activities undertaken by the government for typhoon Yolanda relief efforts, up to date as of November 17, 2013, 5:00 p.m.

The matrix on status of municipalities, towns, and cities in relation to the typhoon Yolanda relief effort has also been updated.

Today’s consolidated update: Status of relief and rehabilitation for typhoon Yolanda, as of November 21, 2013, 6:00 AM

This afternoon, Field Bulletin No. 12 and Field Bulletin No. 13 were issued, regarding the inspection of Secretary Roxas and on efforts to restore normalcy and continuing relief efforts, as well as updates from CHED and DOTC-Marina.

November 20, 2013

Reminder: Sec. Soliman: International relief not repacked as DSWD’s.

Last night’s last update is here: NDRRMC Situation Report on the effects of typhoon Yolanda, November 19, 2013 (8:00 p.m.).

Today’s first consolidated update: NDRRMC Situation Report on the effects of typhoon Yolanda, November 20, 2013 (6:00 a.m.).

This afternoon, Field Bulletin No. 10 and Field Bulletin No. 11 were issued, with updates on the President’s activities in Tacloban City and restoration of normalcy and continuing relief efforts in affected areas.

MapAction is a group of geographical information systems professionals who specialize in disaster mapping. You can view the Typhoon Yolanda Philippines maps MapAction has put together.

November 19, 2013

Yesterday’s last consolidated report  for the day was Status of relief and rehabilitation efforts in Yolanda-affected areas as of November 18, 2013 (6:00 p.m.). The first report for today is NDRRMC Situation Report on the effects of typhoon Yolanda, November 19, 2013 (6:00 a.m.). As always these reports contain updates on casualties, relief, communications, infrastructure.

This afternoon, Field Bulletin No. 9 was issued, with updates and examples on how Tacloban City is making the transition to a return to normalcy.

The President started the day in Tacloban and inspected ongoing efforts there and other areas late in the afternoon, he returned to Manila. See Field Bulletin No.10: On the President’s activities for details.

The Official Gazette maintains a FaceBook page where you can see additional updates and photos from the field.

November 18, 2013

A clarification on questions concerning why relief goods sometimes have to be repacked. Here’s an additional update. See also Transcript of the interview of the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development on continuing relief efforts for those affected by Typhoon Yolanda.

First consolidated report of the day. Please see NDRRMC Situation Report on the effects of typhoon Yolanda, November 18, 2013 (6:00 a.m.).

Field Bulletin No. 7 details the President’s activities yesterday and today in  Guiuan and Tacloban. Here is a Press Briefing by President Benigno S. Aquino III in Guiuan, yesterday.

Field Bulletin No. 8 is on efforts to restore normalcy, infrastructure, communications and from MARINA.

Today the government launches Foreign Aid Transparency Hub. The sub-site was put up in partnership DBM, DOF, DFA and PMS, and the Presidential Spokesperson, PCDSPO and the Official Gazette. The Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAITH) details foreign aid, where its going, whose receiving it. Right now  it will concentrate on #YolandaPH related aid, but eventually it will reflect all foreign pledges for Bohol and Zamboanga too. Do visit! Read the President’s Statement as well.

Another historical note: newspaper facsimile from the Library of Congress, November 30, 1912.

November 17, 2013

First consolidated report for today is NDRRMC Situation Report on the effects of the typhoon Yolanda, November 17, 2013 (6:00 a.m.).

The President is scheduled to visit Guian, Eastern Samar to talk to survivors and receive a briefing. He will also go to Tacloban City, Leyte, today.

Today, Field Report No. 5 has been issued, detailing the operations of the Tacloban and Ormoc #ReliefPH hubs, as well as the distribution of relief to other areas in Leyte and Samar.

This afternoon, Field Bulletin No. 6 laid out the strategic thrusts of the government, from days 1-5, 6-8, 9 onwards:

Days 1 to 5 levels of priority:

Accessing supply routes
Food and relief distribution
Cadaver recovery
Law and order
Days 6 to 8 levels of priority:

Food and relief distribution
Cadaver recovery
Law and order
Accessing supply routes
Day 9 (November 17) levels of priority:

Food and relief distribution
Cadaver recovery
Establishing normalcy (businesses and banks will be opened)
Accessing supply routes
Law and order

Last night an important update was issued, particularly concerning roads, bridges, electric service and telco services. Please see Status of relief and rehabilitation efforts in Yolanda-affected areas as of November 16, 2013 (6:00 p.m.) The report also has an updated on private sector assistance, growing international assistance (44 countries as of the report) and pledges.

You can also see the Timeline: AFP deployment to Yolanda-affected areas from November 16 to 17, 2013.

Forthcoming in tomorrow’s press briefing: Government pioneers online transparency hub for foreign aid.

By the way there has been some unease about a report circulating from a volunteer asking why goods had to be repacked in at least one instance when foreign aid arrived in Cebu. We inquired about this and the answer is pretty straightforward: there is a routine (not country-specific) check to ensure freshness, see if there is damage or spoilage both in the interest of the donor and of the recipients, and also double check if some items may not transport safely/well due to transportation circumstances (ketchup bottles are a good example: if they’re in a donated relief pack, they must be removed). That being done the consolidated pack must then be repacked in a sturdy bag.

An interview on the BBC yesterday gives this update on areas less-covered by the media. See Tom Willcox of BBC interviews Patrick Fuller of ICRC re: Cebu, Panay, Coron:

I was there in Tanuan this afternoon, and trucks are coming one by one with relief. So there’s a lot of local relief coming in.

The markets are just beginning to open up again. You can see shops, people selling things on the street. It’s stabilizing.

And a week ago here, you couldn’t walk down the street with a bag of food because people, the security situation didn’t allow for that. But now, it’s far more stable. Things are much more orderly.

A historical note: In October, 1897 a typhoon and storm surge devastated Tacloban and surrounding areas. (Here’s a later account of the same event from January,1898).

November 16, 2013

See Life-saving radio begins broadcasting in typhoon-hit Tacloban:

[A]n emergency radio station broadcasting critical life-saving information has gone live in badly-affected Tacloban city.

“[The station] aims to be the voice from the government and the relief community to the affected [people] and also to provide two-way communication [with] the community,” Mike Adams, the international coordinator for First Response Radio (FRR), an international non-profit network of radio technicians who have had a team on standby in the Philippines since 2007 and are a partner of the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) network, told IRIN.

Launched at 9am on 14 November, FRR broadcasts on 98.7 MHz FM. The eight-hour daily programmes can be heard up to 10km from Tacloban, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The first day’s programming focused on updating listeners on where to get aid, where evacuation centres and water points are, and which authorities were organizing aid. A representative of the mayor’s office was among those interviewed by the station…

…Before the crisis, the city had nine FM and six AM stations, none of which are currently operating, according to OCHA.

….FRR says it will distribute 1,000 radios to affected `barangays’ (neighbourhoods), and evacuation centres in the next week.

Yesterday’s Field Bulletin No. 1 (on logistics for relief operations, cadaver retrieval) and Field Bulletin No. 2 (on Guiuan, Eastern Samar)  was followed today by Field Bulletin No. 3 which gives the results of the coordination meeting of members of the Cabinet in Tacloban City: updates on food deliveries, health services, etc. This evening, Bulletin No. 4 was issued, detailing the distribution of medical supplies from November 11-16 and forthcoming deployment of generators.

Today’s first consolidated report was issued at 8AM: see NDRRMC Situation Report on the effects of the typhoon Yolanda, November 16, 2013 (8:00 a.m.).

#YolandaPH Information:

For continuing updates and information, bookmark the Typhoon Yolanda page of the Official Gazette. It includes the Google Crisis Map in cooperation with Google, volunteers, and PCDSPO. We’ve reformatted the page to more efficiently categorize and sort updates and resources: Food & Water; Medical; Shelter; Donations and Foreign Aid; Infrastructure; Power; Communications; Security.

The page also contains:

Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAITH) which details foreign aid and assistance, where it’s going, amounts/type. 

#YolandaPH #ReliefPH matrix: Status of municipalities, towns, and cities in Biliran, Antique, Aklan, Capiz, Iloilo, Leyte, Palawan and Samar. Town-by-town updates.

List of Evacuation Centers.

Official Casualties Report.

Humanitarian #ReliefPH Efforts

See Viber, Skype Offer Free Calls To Contact Haiyan Survivors.

See Humanitarian Response: Philippines for a comprehensive portal of initiatives and information for humanitarian organizations. See also United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Quick Facts on Typhoon Haian and there are useful maps in MapAction.

See Contact persons and hotlines from the Department of Health, Eastern Visayas

Want to donate to help with #ReliefPH? See Donate to Yolanda relief effort – information.

Also see FAQs: Donations and Volunteers for the Typhoon Yolanda relief effort for accredited organizations/charities/institutions to whom you may want to consider donating or lending assistance.

What type of goods to donate

• Food (nonperishable goods, canned goods, ready-to-eat, does not require water to cook)
• Bottled water
• Basic medicine (e.g., paracetamol, for dehydration, for diarrhea)
• Clothes (fresh, comfortable, new underwear)
• Toiletries
• Blankets
• Tents

Urgent needs for Tacloban:

• Canned goods (meatloaf and sardines)

• Trucks to distribute relief packs

• Generators and gasoline

Urgent needs for Cebu:

• Canned goods (meatloaf/sardines) and rice

If you have any of the above you’d like to contribute, call this number:

If you’d like to help pack the goods being shipped out, see below:

On Nov. 15 they had 3,985 volunteers at NROC; on Nov. 16 they had 5,102; on Nov. 17 (as of 8PM) 2,365.

For those who want to volunteer in Cebu, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, click here.

Recommended references and readings:

8 maps that explain why Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines so hard, by Max Fisher in the Washington Post, November 15.

See also Q&A with the Secretary of Science and Technology on Typhoon Yolanda.

Walk-through videos: Navigating Official Gazette’s #YolandaPH page and Using the Official Gazette’s #YolandaPH casualties list and person finder services links.

At present Sec. Gazmin is heading efforts of the NDRRMC, ground supervision is by Sec. Roxas in Tacloban, where Sec. Soliman is overseeing the distribution of relief; in Manila, Sec. Abaya is coordinating all transport (air, land sea) arrangements; Sec. Baldos is central hub for offers of donations from the private sector for equipment, funds, goods; the supervision of packing efforts in the expanded hubs for relief packing is under Sec. Purisima. All of this is in fulfillment of the directives of the President (Memorandum Order No. 60, s. 2013 ).

Note that checkpoints have been set up along these routes to ensure security. Those mounting relief convoys should try to avoid the highly-congested Matnog, Bicol to Allen, Sorsogon route.

You can explore the DSWD Disaster Mitigation and Response Situation Map. The Bureau of Mines and Geosciences has a Geological Database with Hazard Maps. See also NASA Damage Map Helps in Typhoon Disaster Response.

Center for Journalism Ethics: Trauma and Journalists, by Stephen J.A. Ward

Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma: Tragedies & Journalists: a guide for more effective coverage.

American Journalism Review: After the Adrenaline: Once the excitement of chasing the big story subsides, journalists struggle to cope with the horror of the tragic events they’ve witnessed, by Sherry Ricchiardi.

Nieman Reports: Equipping Journalists With Tools for Emotional Balance, by William J. Drummond.

John Crowley, Stop Catastrophizing Relief Efforts in the Philippines: The scaremongering is undermining delivery of supplies, November 14, 2013.

Rob Crilly, Why I won’t be criticising the Philippine relief effort after Typhoon Haiyan – I’ve been there, November 15, 2013.

DJ Yap, Meeting a monster: First person account, November 17, 2013

Thinking about the future: A collaborative Effort to Consolidate Ideas.