TACLOBAN (ACTED News) - The ACTED team on the ground in the Philippines have been assessing humanitarian needs of populations in the hardest hit areas and less accessible surrounding communities since 13th November. They made a humanitarian situation report in municipalities South and East of Tacloban on the most hardly hit island of Leyte, as well as in Eastern Samar, on 16 November 2013. Though some food has been distributed in the municipalities of Tolosa, Dulag, Mayorga and McArthur, food, water and shelter are priorities throughout the entire area. In these areas, all Barangays (community level administrative divisions) are badly hit.
So far, people have received limited relief. Some individuals have been able to benefit from a few relief items distributed by the government, local organisations or even individuals, but some rural communities remain quite isolated from the first humanitarian operations over a week after typhoon Haiyan struck the islands of Leyte and Samar.
According to the assessments in the field, over 80% of houses have been destroyed. Most homes are traditionally made of light materials such as bamboo, coconut tree, plywood, and pawod (made of leaves of nipa plant or galvanized iron sheets), and did not resist the winds of the typhoon. Other structures were destroyed, while others, made of heavier materials, were also been severely impacted, such as schools, churches, and government buildings.
Many of the affected areas are still inaccessible because of road blockages and lack of equipment to unclog the road.
Primary needs here include food, water, shelter, medicine. In most areas, food is the number one priority for affected populations, and there are limited cooking facilities, utensils and cooking fuel. Food items are not only unavailable, and represent an acute emergency for the populations some 10 days after the disaster, but the loss of agricultural assets and income is leading to limited resources available to purchase food in the near future. ACTED will therefore launch cash for work interventions very soon to inject food and cash into the communities, while supporting the recovery of income generating activities or allowing access to the main markets, notably through road clearance.
Access to water, clean toilets, and hygiene are also very problematic: 4,000 non-food item kits, 2,000 tents and 2,000 shelter kits have arrived in Cebu and will be distributed in the coming days to the most vulnerable populations and to those who are still waiting for emergency relief.