The Damage:
Typhoon Goni struck the Philippines early Sunday morning with winds up to 190 miles per hour. Although recorded as one of the most powerful storms ever seen, the national weather agency indicated the typhoon had calmed to a tropical storm. Nevertheless, the damage of this storm was catastrophic and devastating to the people of the Philippines. BBC indicates that Goni, locally known as Rolly, is the most powerful storm to strike the Philippines. This is similar to typhoon Haiyan which killed more than 6,000 people in 2013.
This Typhoon appeared to have only grazed Manila, the capital, but still caused damage to other cities. According to the Washington Post, 125 cities/towns were left without electricity. As the country struggles with this typhoon, coronavirus outbreaks are surging aswell. As of November 1st, it was stated by the Washington Post that around 389,000 evacuees nationwide were packed into evacuation centers (a seemingly regular protocol) that is now paired with a
fear due to the pandemic. With this overcrowding, Health officials continued to remind the public of safety guidelines (for Covid19) yet this proved to be difficult.
The Preemptive Measures and Issues:
As this disaster approached, some people of the Philippines were not able to access this life threatening information. The restriction of news served as a large threat to the people, “the news conference (a broadcast explaining how disastrous and impactful the typhoon would be) was aired on a cable TV station only available to subscribers who paid for it, highlighting the difficulty of getting emergency updates to large swaths of people since the closing of ABS-CBN, a news network that offered free TV and radio broadcasts” (The New York Times).
Many Philipinos use this network daily, especially during a worldwide pandemic. The closing of ABS-CBN added another obstacle for the Philpinos. President Rodrigo Duterte had accused it of bias and shut down it down.
The Discussion of Climate Change:
It is no secret that the Philippines is prone to typhoons, deadly floods, and landslides. Climate change is also worsening this already vulnerable country’s stance. To elaborate, sea temperatures continue to rise in the Philippines which means the country is left victim to even more tropical storms. Especially residents of low lying and densely populated slums on the outskirts of the capital are very exposed (The New York Times).
Along with mass deforestation and the destruction of mangroves near the coastlines, natural barriers against wind and water are being demolished. According to the Asian Development Bank, more than 23,000 people in the Philippines died from natural hazards from 1997 to 2016. With a country already prone to such damage, climate change is exacerbating it. The addition of the Coronavirus is also straining the country as well.
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