DART’s swift arrival hailed by survivors of typhoon
‘It’s great, great, great that you are here to help us,’ governor says
The first Canadian troops providing emergency aid to nearly one million Filipinos after last week’s monster typhoon were given a hero’s welcome as they arrived Friday at the north end of Panay Island.
“It’s great, great, great that you are here to help us,” said Victor Tancos, governor of the province of Capiz. “You overwhelm us. You have moved so quickly to address our needs.”
Kendra Clegg, an Australian co-ordinating United Nations’ operations in Capiz, said “We’ve been blown away that the Canadians are coming. They can do so much, and rapidly, too.”
The first Canadian humanitarian mission is to be launched Saturday. A small medical team comprising a military doctor, a nurse and a medic has been asked by local authorities to visit an evacuation centre outside Roxas where Philippine authorities have reported there are many homeless people in urgent need of medical assistance.
“No one ever hopes for this kind of catastrophe but given that it is a reality on the planet we live on, the guys are pretty excited to get out and mitigate the effects,” said Lt.Col. Walter Taylor, the DART commander.
That the Canadians have managed to reach the far side of the world a week after the typhoon struck has answered past criticisms that some previous Disaster Assistance Response Team deployments to disaster zones were too slow to arrive.
As the Canadians ramp up, almost daily flights with more troops and gear will be landing during the next week, Taylor’s operations officer, Maj. Darryn Gray of Hamilton, said.
When the typhoon hit the central Philippines on Nov. 8, Gray was finishing a combat team commander’s course, in 50 centimetres of snow and -25 Celsius temperatures at CFB Wainwright, Alta. “Forty-eight hours after that, I was here in the tropical heat of the Philippines,” the major said.
‘The governors here were extremely proactive in evacuating and stockpiling relief supplies.’ LT.-COL. WALTER TAYLOR DART commander, speaking of Capiz province’s situation
Some of the Canadians flew directly Friday to Roxas from Manila. Others came north by road from the city of Iloilo as part of a long convoy that included a military ambulance and a command and control truck with Canadian licence plates. Many of the Canadians made the journey sitting atop loads of emergency supplies on Philippine army trucks. That lookout provided a harrowing view of the 50-kilometre swath of destruction and despair that super typhoon Haiyan had cut along a 100-kilometre track on Panay after leaving Samar and Leyte, where thousands died.
There will be lots for the approximately 200 Canadians to do. More than 98,000 homes, made mostly of wood, were destroyed and nearly 700,000 people’s lives have been seriously disrupted by the storm in Capiz alone, according to updated statistics provided by the UN Friday.
The DART will work not only in Capiz, but to the east in northern Iloilo province, where Haiyan’s wrath was, if anything, even greater, especially on a few small islands that the Canadians may reach by helicopter and boat. To smooth co-ordination, the colonel has established his headquarters a floor above Gov. Tanco’s office. The building also houses the headquarters for the Philippine military, the UN and NGOs such as Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontières.
The Canadian operation in Capiz and northern Iloilo will inevitably draw comparisons with the huge, U.S.led international effort that is focused 300 km to the east at Tacloban in Leyte, which was flattened by the storm. There have been thousands of deaths there, and serious civil disorder in places.
“Everybody thinks, ‘Tacloban, Tacloban, Tacloban.’ And I say we’re here, too,” Tancos said. “Up to now we have been unable to restore any electricity and comms (communications) outside of parts of Roxas. And water is a grave problem everywhere except the city.”
Tancos’s deputy, Estevan “Nonoy” Contreras, added, “We had the feeling we were being left behind by the donors. We understand why they went to Tacloban, but this is the worst calamity we’ve ever had.”
Because there was very little sea surge in northern Panay, except in a few coastal areas, the death count was much lower than in Leyte and Samar. But the typhoon caused massive destruction here, particularly in hard-toaccess rural areas with habitual disease problems such as dengue fever, and where there have already been potentially ominous reports of diarrhea from contaminated drinking water — often a precursor to cholera.
As well as a medical team, the Canadians have brought with them a reverse-osmosis water purification plant capable of producing 50,000 litres of potable water from just about any water they find locally.
“What we need most is good water, so thank you very much, Canada,” said Marian Aguirre, as she and other volunteers distributed bottles of water in Punta Tabuc Barangay, on the outskirts of Roxas.
“It is not as severe as Tacloban, but if there had not been a Tacloban this would have required a serious response and a lot of attention because there are very real human needs here,” said Clegg, the UN’s team leader. “Hygiene, sanitation, water and emergency shelters are all priorities. And the next problem will be warehousing food. Nobody can answer yet how that will be solved.”
Taylor likened the competition for donor attention “to when your four- and fiveyear-olds play soccer and everyone runs after the ball. That is what is happening with Tacloban.
“Not to denigrate the great efforts there, but the governors here were extremely proactive in evacuating and stockpiling relief supplies. That meant lower casualties and less media attention. It has almost been as if they were punished for having a good plan. But a week in now, the first responders are at the end of their tethers and those initial supplies are wearing thin.
“What we can do here is to prevent people here from dying from secondary effects, bad water and sanitation and no access to food and shelter. Where we are is the right place to be.”