Introduction
The 2013 typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and was among the most powerful ever recorded and was designated as a Category 5 typhoon. This paper aims to discuss the Haiyan Typhoon and the geographical sequences before and after the event, give suggestions to city planners, and give social and global perspectives of the calamity. The typhoon was caused by climate change. The disaster had catastrophic consequences for the economy, education, and the general public’s social and environmental well-being. This paper provides strategies that can be used to lessen the impacts of such a calamity if it occurs in the future. Different social and international perspectives on the incidence of disaster occurrences that exist will be identified. In my future profession as a social worker, I will collaborate with groups that assist people in getting back on their feet after calamities strike. In conclusion, the paper will be helpful in giving significant insight into calamities such as the Haiyan Typhoon and help in ways that can reduce their impact.
Geologic Sequence
A typhoon is identical to a cyclone and a hurricane, but the difference comes in the location it occurs. Hurricanes occur in the Northeast Pacific and the Atlantic regions. These storms are called cyclones in the Indian Ocean or South Pacific, while typhoons are found in the Northwest Pacific. They are all called tropical cyclones. The conditions are fit to produce a cyclone in weather disturbance, presence of moisture, light wind, and warm Tropical Ocean. The cyclones can produce violent waves and winds, torrential rains, and flooding in areas near the oceans.
Typhoon Haiyan is considered one of the greatest typhoons that occurred worldwide. The disaster struck the Philippines in 2013, on November 8th, at around 4:50 am (Seriñoei al., 2021). This tropical storm surge originated from the northwest Pacific Ocean. The typhoon is characterized as a category five, one of the most powerful typhoons that have ever stricken the Philippines. The recorded wind speed was 195 miles per hour (314 km/h) (Wang et al., 2018). The typhoon Haiyan is a super typhoon as it sustained winds of more than 150mph during most of its existence. Philistine is located in an area of seasonal warm ocean water around 27 degrees and has enough Coriolis Force to develop rotating winds over the ocean’s surface. The rise of sea levels resulted in the creation of large storm surges. The usage of groundwater consequently resulted in the country sinking, the Tacloban being the worst affected at the end of the bay, and it funneled the water from the storm surge.
Culture Before the Event
Before the Haiyan Typhoon, the Philippines was one of the best-emerging markets in the world. The major boosters of the economy were sugar, rice, and corn. The Philippines was an area of intense seismic activity as it borders two tectonic plates making it prone to typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. The country’s economy was better than after the disaster; it destroyed most of the property and the workforce of people. The country’s education system was regular; children attended school on normal days and had normal learning experiences. The Tacloban airport was beneficial to the people of the county as it was a means of transport for goods and tourists, which helped with the country’s economic growth.
Culture After the Event
Economic Impacts
The storm surge caused a significant impact on the Philippines’ economy. The typhoon overall was responsible for an estimated $5.8 billion economic impact (Lagmay & Rodrigo, 2022). Over six million workers lost their sources of livelihood (Floro & Poyatzis, 2018). The typhoon destroyed major corn, sugar, and rice-producing areas in the Philippines, affecting the country’s international trade and the farmers’ income. Between 50,000 and 120,000 tons of sugar may have been lost due to the damage (Floro & Poyatzis, 2018). About 1314,611 tons were devastated, equal to a 1.8 percent reduction in output and 4,000 tons of corn destroyed (Seriñoei al., 2021). The storm damaged the airport of the city of Tacloban, which majorly affected the business and tourism sector. The fishing communities were impacted severely as the storm destroyed boats and equipment used for fishing.
Social Impacts
The Haiyan Typhoon resulted in the loss of life of more than 7,000 people. 1.9 million people were left homeless, and 6 million individuals were displaced (Lagmay & Rodrigo, 2022). The storm resulted in the outbreak of infections because of a lack of food, shelter, water, medication, food, and sanitation. The less affected areas reported that their population increased by more than half after the typhoon, which brought a refugee influx. This incident led to insufficient social amenities and services for the people. The government of Tacloban was destroyed, with only 70 people at work in the immediate days compared to 2,500 people on normal days (Seriñoei al., 2021). Many workers had been killed, injured, lost their families in the storm, or were too traumatized to work.
Environmental Impacts
The widespread of the floods resulted in the affected areas’ damage. Many homes and businesses were destroyed in the coastal regions. As reported by the Philippines government, about 7,100 hectares of farmland were affected. The floods resulted in oil spillage after it knocked over Power Barge 103 (BBC, n.d.). This damage resulted in environmental pollution and affected the mangrove ecosystem. Major roads were blocked by trees and were not possible.
Educational Impacts
As always happens in natural disasters, the typhoon badly hits education. The storm resulted in the destruction and damage of more than 2,500 public schools (Monteclaro et al., 2018). Due to this effect, more than 12,400 classes needed to be repaired, and 4,400 needed replacements (Monteclaro et al., 2018). Some people who lost their lives were school-going children and their teachers. Other children faced trauma after the disaster affecting their education. The damage and the rebuilding of schools resulted in effects on the learning dates and timelines of the students. In other situations, thousands of schools had to be used as community shelters in safer regions, preventing normal classroom operations. Overall educational attainment was reduced, and academic performance was lowered. Student absenteeism was recorded as a result of illnesses and the displacement of children from their areas of residence.
Suggestions for City Planner
To mitigate the effects of this kind of calamity, city planners should implement several strategies. Sustainable action is taken to reduce and eliminate the long-term risks to the lives of people and their property. City planners should consider implementing structural measures such as floodwalls, dams, sea walls, spillways, channels, and levees that help alter the characteristics of the floods. Non-structural measure such as structural elevation is helpful where building structures above the expected level of floods help curb the damage. Natural systems can be effective where naturally existing, developed, or restored wetlands in periodical cultivation can restore the water overflow from the flooding river lines and help reduce impact downstream.
Accurate risk mapping may provide those living in flood-prone areas with the information to make rational decisions concerning developing their corporate or individual risk management strategies. Early warning systems, emergency plans, and hazard forecasting enable people to prepare for emergency action and plans for evacuation to reduce loss of property and casualties. Wet and dry floodproofing may be implemented in the area. Dry proofing prevents the flood water from entering by sealing the structures, while wet proofing allows the water to enter and flow through the building without causing damage (Williams et al., 2020). Additionally, land-use zoning and planning are essential to effectively reduce the risks at the community level. Public policies are implemented on how land may be used and the time it may be used to avoid liabilities resulting from the damage.
Social and Global Perspectives
Storm surges are natural calamities that result in damage at different levels. There is a different perspective of different people on this form of calamity. Racial prejudices may affect different people in different ways during disasters. The Black individuals living in the community may be more affected by the occurrence of national disasters than the whites in the area. Forms of inequalities due to racial differences may result in employment challenges and healthcare inequalities. Unemployment leads to low income and savings, which may affect recovery after a calamity. Most of the time, the unequal community members are the poor and homeless. Healthcare inequalities may result in a lack of equal medical care for all individuals from the health illnesses that have resulted from the storms. The white members may be exposed to better defense mechanisms and healthcare services.
In my future profession as a social worker, I will be most ready to help people in such a disaster. I would be there for the families who need support and assistance and work on the family system context. With the knowledge of the needs of the people, I will help people regain balance after the disaster. I will help pass relevant information on the preventative and risk management issues resulting from the dangers of the typhoon. I will work closely with organizations to provide medical and mental health for people for those who need medical assistance and those who need mental support from the trauma experienced during the calamity. Millionaires and the homeless are two different groups when in regard to bearing power during cases of disasters. Millionaires are likely to face lower impacts of the challenge compared to the poor and homeless people. They may have better defense mechanisms, savings, and access to needs than the poor. On the other hand, the poor may not have savings to recover after the calamity and may experience inequalities in access to necessities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Haiyan Typhoon was one of the greatest recorded typhoons in the Philippines and was recorded as a category five typhoon. The typhoon resulted from climate change due to global warming, rising water temperatures, and rotating winds. The event’s impact was dreadful, affecting the economy, student education, and social and environmental effects on people. Suggestions are offered to the city planners of measures they should take to mitigate the risk of such calamities if they occur in the future. These measures include structural and non-structural measures, the use of natural systems, accurate risk mapping, emergency plans, hazard forecasting, and floodproofing. There are different social and global perspectives concerning calamity events, and the wealthy are the least affected compared to the homeless and the poor. In my future career as a social worker, I will work hand in hand with helping organizations to bring people back on their feet after events of occurrence of disasters.
References
BBC. (n.d.). Tropical storms: Tropical storm case study – typhoon Haiyan. BBC News.
Monteclaro, H., Quinitio, G., Moscoso, A. D., Napata, R., Espectato, L., Anraku, K., & Ishikawa, S. (2018). Impacts of typhoon Haiyan on Philippine capture fisheries and implications to fisheries management. Ocean & Coastal Management, 158, 128-133.
Floro, M. S., & Poyatzis, G. (2018). Climate change, natural disasters and the spillover effects on unpaid care: The case of super-typhoon Haiyan. In C. Bauhardt & W. Harcourt (Eds.), Feminist Political Ecology and the Economics of Care: in Search of Economic Alternative (pp. 70-98). Routledge.
Lagmay, E. A. D., & Rodrigo, M. M. T. (2022). The impact of extreme weather on student online learning participation. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 17(1), 1-21.
Seriño, M. N. V., Cavero, J. A., Cuizon, J., Ratilla, T. C., Ramoneda, B. M., Bellezas, M. H. I., & Ceniza, M. J. C. (2021). Impact of the 2013 super typhoon Haiyan on the livelihood of small-scale coconut Farmers in Leyte Island, Philippines. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 52, 101939.
Wang, G., Zhao, B., Qiao, F., & Zhao, C. (2018). Rapid intensification of super typhoon Haiyan: The important role of a warm-core ocean eddy. Ocean Dynamics, 68(12), 1649-1661.
Williams, L., Arguillas, M. J. B., & Arguillas, F. (2020). Major storms, rising tides, and wet feet: Adapting to flood risk in the Philippines. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 50, 101810.