Church bells pealed and sirens wailed across the central Philippine city of Tacloban on Saturday to mark the moment when typhoon Haiyan barrelled inland from the Pacific with ferocious winds and tsunami-like waves one year ago.
The powerful typoon left more than 7,300 dead or missing and levelled entire villages in the world’s deadliest disaster last year.
Worst-hit Tacloban city and outlying regions have crept back from the rubble.
Fisherman Ben Pedrero recalls his ordeal as he helps slaughter a pig in preparation for the one-year solemn rites for the death of his wife, their son, and his wife’s parents, in Tacloban. (Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)
“They (Tacloban residents) are coping. Still a long way to go, but we are moving on and doing the best we can,” said Alfred Romualdez, Tacloban City Mayor.
Yet, human scars are harder to overcome.
“I am still in pain. Until now I am still blaming myself,” said Abigail Macalinga, who lost three of her children in the storm.
The exact figures for the dead and missing are still being collected.
The typhoon demolished about a million houses and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions, where a Marxist insurgency has endured for decades.
Overall damage was estimated at 571.1 billion pesos ($12.9 billion US), including about 16 million knocked-down coconut trees, a major source of livelihood.
With the loss of income, about a million more people were pushed deeper into poverty, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Building more than 200,000 new houses for the poor, who were left with nothing, is proving difficult.
The government, backed by international donors, has built temporary bunkhouses and shelters, but many residents have hammered back their shacks in the same coastal villages where they were hit by the storm – and which have been officially declared “no-build zones.”
About 3,000 people still live in tents in Tacloban, though the city government has pledged to move them to permanent housing by the end of the year.
Under the long-term plan to protect against similar typhoon onslaughts, the government wants to build an elevated road connecting Tacloban to two coastal towns that will also serve as a dike.
