At 4.40am local time on the 8 November 2013, a typhoon hit eastern Samar, one of the 7,000
plus islands that make up the Philippines.
This typhoon, known internationally as Haiyan, and locally as Yolanda, caused a wall of water,
known as a storm surge, that was as high as 25 feet in some places.
And although strong winds can be incredibly destructive, it's actually storm surges that
usually inflict the heaviest damage and kill the most people.
And this storm surge was exceptionally high.
There's some dispute over the exact strength of Haiyan, and reports regarding its speed
vary: Some sources, including Oxfam, still cite it as the strongest cyclone ever recorded
at landfall, i.e. once a cyclone hits land.
BUT if we go by data provided by the Philippine government weather agency, then this isn't
actually true.
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration puts
the speed of Haiyan's sustained winds at landfall at 147mph, which makes it the seventh strongest
typhoon to ever make landfall in the Philippines.
The strongest ever was known as Joan internationally, and Sening locally, and hit the country in
1970 with a wind speed of 171 miles per hour.
In some ways, however, this point is irrelevant.
Because regardless of whether Haiyan was the strongest typhoon in history or not, it still
remains the deadliest cyclone to ever hit the Philippines, leaving as many as 8,000
people dead and millions more homeless.
The Philippines is no stranger to natural disasters.
Not only does it experience an average of 20 typhoons a year, including three so-called
"super-typhoons", but it also faces numerous incidents of flooding, drought, earthquakes,
tremors and occasional volcanic eruptions, making it one of the most naturally disaster-prone
countries in the world.
In fact, when Haiyan struck on the 8th November the country was still recovering from a magnitude
7.2 earthquake that devastated much of Bohol island less than a month before.
More than 200 people were killed in the quake, and around 74,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Lots of this misfortune has to do with the Philippines' location: the country sits on
the border of two tectonic plates known as "The Pacific Ring of Fire", making it a hotbed
of seismic activity.
But, worryingly, lots of it may also have to do with climate change.
"To anyone outside who continues to deny and ignore the reality that is climate change,
I dare them, I dare them to get off their ivory towers and away from the comfort of
their armchairs.
I dare them to go to the islands of the Pacific."
Not only are mean temperatures in the Philippines rising by 0.14 degrees celsius a decade, but
scientists are also registering steadily rising sea levels around the country.
According to the Philippine government, extreme weather is now becoming more frequent, which,
coupled with a huge and expanding population and significant poverty and wealth inequality,
is proving a recipe for disaster.
Unfortunately the Philippines also has a pretty bad reputation for government corruption,
and in the past officials have been accused of taking advantage of the country's many
natural disasters by siphoning off funds intended for relief and reconstruction.
When Haiyan hit the Philippines, for example, prosecutors were investigating allegations
that US$20.7 million in government funds intended for rebuilding towns devastated by two typhoons
in 2009 had been stolen by 97 local officials.
And it's likely that the impact of Haiyan was made worse by past government corruption
as money for roads had been diverted making it more difficult for people to evacuate,
while hospitals didn't have all the necessary resources.
So far, reports on government corruption in the wake of Haiyan have been minimal, but,
several of our Filipino viewers have expressed concern about relief goods being diverted
and victims not being helped enough by the government.
You can check out these concerns in the comments on our Google Plus page.
Six months on, the response to Haiyan is turning from so-called "relief" to recovery but that
doesn't mean the disaster's all over for the millions affected by the typhoon.
Many people are still living in partially or fully damaged houses under blankets and
tarpaulins, which, in a country that experiences abundant rainfall, is pretty disastrous.
And sadly, some of the most vulnerable survivors have been provided kits by charities with
which to build new shelters, but don't actually have the means to put these shelters up.
Income is also a massive issue.
Six million people saw their livelihoods destroyed by Haiyan, with 33 million coconut trees devastated,
one million tons of crops lost, and 30,000 fishing boats damaged or completely destroyed.
It may be possible for some of these livelihoods to be rebuilt over time, but this could take
years.
One coconut farmer told the Guardian newspaper that Haiyan had taken coconut farming "back
to zero", and according to charities the newly planted trees will take at least three to
seven years to regrow.
And to make matters worse, the Philippine government is planning to move 200,000 people
away from coastal areas, the places most at risk from future typhoons, without factoring
in how all of these people are going to make a living.
The problem is that while coastal areas might be dangerous places to live, they also provide
a livelihood for many of the people living there, including fishing communities, labourers
and vendors.
You might wonder why we're telling you all this.
Well, on the 9th May we're going to be traveling to the Philippines with the Disasters Emergency
Committee to find out what happened to the £90m donated by the British public in the
wake of Haiyan, and to try and unpick the complex and often misunderstood world of aid
and relief work.
We'll be based in Tacloban, a city on the island of Leyte that is home to more than
220,000 people.
Tacloban suffered more loss of life than any other area of the Philippines as a result
of Haiyan and because of this, and because the scenes of devastation in the city were
particularly visually shocking, it is also the place that received the most media attention.
And as a result, the most help.
What has become known as "the Tacloban effect".
So to try and combat this we're also going to be visiting some of the lesser known and
more remote areas in the region, the places that didn't make it into the news quite so
often.
For those of you who don't know, the Disasters Emergency Committee, or the DEC as it's more
commonly known, is an organisation that brings together 13 member charities when there's
a major disaster overseas, in order to raise awareness about the disaster and to raise
money for the relief and recovery effort.
These charities are considered the biggest and best of the British overseas aid charities
by the DEC and the idea is that when a lot of money needs to be raised really quickly,
it makes more sense for these charities to come together to launch one single appeal,
rather than 13 separate ones.
But with so many countries around the world experiencing widespread poverty, conflict
and devastation caused by extreme weather conditions at any one time, we wanted to know
how the DEC decides what constitutes a "disaster" and when it is going to launch an appeal.
"So we've got three quite strict criteria to decide when we're going to appeal for a
big overseas disaster.
So the first one is: Is there a really serious, unmet humanitarian need?
And so that comes down to two things: It's got to be fairly large-scale; we don't tend
to respond unless millions of people are affected.
The second part of that, which is perhaps not so obvious, is, you know, if the government,
say the Japanese government, or the American government, is really well-placed to respond,
if there's a really strong civil society, lots of national charities and organisations
who can do the work, they don't need us.
The second big criteria is: Can our members help?
If we can't get access because the government won't let us in we won't ask the British public
to help us.
And sometimes, you know, it literally is too inaccessible for logistical reasons, you know,
we can't get to where we're needed because the members aren't there in any numbers.
And the final criteria, which is actually a really important one, is: Do we have good
reason to think the British public will support us, and the kinds of things we look at there
are: Is it getting a lot of mainstream media coverage.
That's actually really important.
It's not a good measure of whether a disaster is serious, it's not a good measure of whether
we an help.
But actually it's a very good measure of whether people are going to give us the money we need
to justify doing a great big appeal where we're asking for their money, and trying to
get a lot of money to a disaster zone quite quickly."
But, all of this criteria can go out the window when a disaster like Haiyan takes place.
"The DEC has a very, you know, formal set of criteria for deciding when we appeal.
But we also have a rule of thumb.
And one of the rules of thumb is sometimes there's a disaster that's just so shocking,
and so large, that it's a no-brainer.
And that's actually a category we use.
We don't publish it, we don't talk about it publicly usually.
But inside the DEC sometimes you look at something, like Typhoon Haiyan, and you just say: It's
a no-brainer.
And everyone knows what that means.
What that means is, there's no question we're going to appeal.
We'll still go through all the process of making sure it meets the criteria, but it's
abundantly clear from day one we are going to appeal."
Most DEC appeals are launched within 48 hours of a natural disaster taking place, and then
run for six months, at which point the organisation stops taking donations.
When the disaster is an ongoing one however, such as the conflict in Syria, appeals are
usually launched following a so-called "peak" in the situation, for example a huge increase
in the number of refugees.
During, and following appeals, the DEC distributes the money donated to all of its member charities,
according to their capacity to help in a disaster.
To begin with the charities will focus on spending this money on "relief" or immediate
aid that is essential to people's survival.
This is things like food, water, medicine and shelter.
As time goes on however, they'll focus increasingly on "recovery" work that will help the society
affected return to normal, things like rebuilding houses.
The DEC's appeal for Haiyan was launched on the 12th November 2013 and so we're approaching
that six-month mark when donations are going to stop being collected, which is why we're
going now.
As we've already mentioned £90 million has been donated so far, which is one of the biggest
amounts ever raised - third only to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
By comparison the DEC's extended appeal for Syria has only raised £23 million in twice
the length of time.
If you live in the United Kingdom and donated to the DEC appeal for Haiyan then we'd love
to know how you think your donation got spent.
And from everyone else we'd love to know what you'd like us to try and find out while we're
in the Philippines, and what videos you think we should make when we get back.
We're not only going there to look at all of the good work the DEC's member charities
are doing but also to find out about anything that's gone wrong, things that hadn't been
thought out properly, how the charities could have been better prepared, and what they wish
they'd done differently.
The idea is to give you guys an unsanitised look at aid and relief work, the stuff you
don't usually get to see.
Internet's going to be limited but we'll try and tweet about what we see and find out as
much as possible and if we can, maybe even upload some short videos or vlogs while we're
there.
Til next time!