Thousands left homeless and hungry at Christmas as the Philippines grapples with the reality of the climate crisis

Surigao, Philippines (CNN) – Jay Lacia usually wakes up at midnight on Christmas Day to start the festivities, but this year all he wanted was to have enough food.

“We always celebrate Christmas, but for now, it is too harsh,” said the 27-year-old father, as he sat in the rubble in the typhoon-affected city of Surigao, in the extreme northeast of Mindanao in the Philippines.

Broken wood, metal scraps and plastic debris line the shore, where an exhausted stray dog ​​sleeps. The stench of waste and dead fish fills the air.

More than a week after super typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, struck the Philippines, Lacia has given up and given up trying to save what’s left of her home. In his village, located on the nearby island of Dinagat, there is no longer a single house standing.

“Everything has disappeared, including my house,” Lacia says. “The roof and the wood with which we build are gone.”

No one expected the fury that would unleash Rai when hit the archipelago December 16. It was the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, killing nearly 400 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more.

The Philippines experiences several typhoons a year, but the climate crisis has made the storms more unpredictable and extreme, leaving the nation’s poorest more vulnerable.

Families like Lacia’s have lost everything. And now, they are faced with the almost impossible task of rebuilding their homes without having enough food or water to drink.

“We thought we were safe because we tied up our house. We thought that was enough to keep it from collapsing,” he said.

“We put a weight on our roof to keep it from being blown away by the wind. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”

Homeless at Christmas

Nearly 4 million people in more than 400 cities were affected by Typhoon Rai, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of the Philippines (NDRRMC).

More than half a million remained displaced during Christmas, one of the most important holidays in this nation with a Catholic majority.

“Families have nothing,” said Jerome Balinton, Save the Children’s humanitarian officer. “The bright lights and Christmas music were replaced by dirty and dank evacuation centers. His only wish this Christmas is to survive.”
Jovelyn Paloma Sayson, 35, from the city of Surigao, was evacuated to her community’s parish church before the Rai’s arrival.

Their fragile hut, made of wood, plastic and metal, did not withstand the powerful gusts of wind from the storm.

“The roofs of all the houses were flying everywhere,” said the mother of seven as she sat among the ruins of her house.

“Our house was the first to collapse. First the roof blew off. Then the foundations collapsed. After my home was destroyed, my mother’s collapsed.”

All the family’s food was destroyed by the floods. Its reserves of rice, a staple for the Southeast Asian country, were floating in muddy waters alongside broken pieces of wood. Sayson’s children’s clothes are ruined by the rain, and only fragments of his furniture remain.

Sayson’s kitchen appliances were stolen after the disaster. You can’t afford to rebuild from scratch, he says.

“We need money to rebuild our house,” he said. “We don’t dream of owning a mansion. All we want is to have our own house to live in and for our children to be safe.”

Despite the trauma, her family came together to celebrate the holidays.

“We had nothing to eat,” Sayson said. “Someone gave us sliced ​​bread and canned goods. Even though we are poor, we have a party every Christmas.”

Prolonged displacement and suffering

According to the NDRRMC, more than 1,000 temporary shelters have been set up to house people whose homes have collapsed.
For many of the displaced families, the trauma and suffering are unbearable.

Alvin Dumduma, director of projects in the Philippines for the aid group Humanity and Inclusion, said it is “exhausting” for families trying to rebuild their homes “while dying of hunger and thirst.”

Crowded into unsanitary evacuation centers and without running water, he worries about the possible spread of diseases, such as Covid-19.

“Conditions in evacuation centers are far from ideal. They are unsanitary. Thousands of people sleep under one roof without drinking water,” he added. “The children don’t go to school. There is no electricity either. They will be like this for a long time.”

Dumduma said the disaster has also devastated the livelihoods of these families.

“Many are from fishing or agricultural communities whose boats and land have been destroyed,” he said. “They are going to fight hard to rebuild their businesses.”

The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte He said the government will raise money for the rehabilitation and recovery of areas devastated by the typhoon. The United Nations has also pledged more than $ 100 million in aid.

But Dumduma said much more needs to change at the government level to avoid such devastation from future storms.

“The chaos occurred because the government was not prepared. They must strengthen their disaster and response program,” he said. “We need more training, more preparation and an early response.”

CNN contacted the NDRRMC for comment, but received no response prior to the publication of this report.

Motorists speed past fallen coconut trees at the peak of Super Typhoon Rai along a highway in the city of Del Carmen on the island of Siargao on December 20, 2021.

Effects of the climate crisis

Situated in the typhoon belt of the western Pacific Ocean, the Philippines regularly experiences major storms, but the climate crisis has made these events more extreme and unpredictable.

As the climate crisis worsens, cyclones become more intense and destructive. Rai quickly went from being the equivalent of a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm in just 24 hours, with winds of up to 260 kilometers per hour.

And the country was not prepared for a catastrophe of this magnitude.

Kairos Dela Cruz, deputy director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, said that developing countries are reaching the limits of their ability to cope with natural disasters on their own and that those living in low-lying coastal areas will soon lose. their homes by rising sea levels.

A study published in November Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Meteorological Innovation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong revealed that typhoons in Asia could double in destructive power by the end of the century. They already last between two and nine hours longer and travel an average of 100 kilometers more inland than four decades ago.

The climate crisis also highlights the Philippines’ systemic problems, Dela Cruz said.

“We need more resources to help us and (we should) play a stronger role internationally to drive more climate finance,” he said.

According to Dela Cruz, a storm of the size of Rai in December is unusual for the Philippines, which typically experiences typhoons from June to September.

For Alita Sapid, 64, the effects of the climate crisis are clearly visible.

“We’ve had typhoons before, but this one was extremely strong,” he said of the Rai. Sapid stayed at her Surigao home with her husband, daughter and four grandchildren when the typhoon hit, but when the water leaked, they decided it was time to evacuate.

“I told my husband to get out of here because we could die,” she said. “My grandchildren had to crawl on the roads because the wind was so strong.”

The roof of Sapid’s house is completely destroyed. With nowhere to go and no money for now, the family has no choice but to sleep in their exposed house … what’s left of it.

“In addition to thinking about what we are going to prioritize in the repair, we are also thinking about how we can get food,” he said.
“We have not received any help yet. We are waiting for someone to help us.”

A long road to recovery

Lacia, from the island of Dinagat, will move with his wife and son to Surigao. It’s safer there, he said.

“My neighbors are no longer (in Dinagat). Most of them have left because there is nothing left in our neighborhood,” he said.

The only things left in his name are a few matches, a box of rice, dried fish, and canned goods.

“In my family, we really need help to be able to get up again and earn a living again,” Lacia said.

“Odette was really a super typhoon,” he said. “We lost our house, damaged by the force of the wind that brought the storm. We did everything, but still it was not enough.”