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SURF WIRE
November 12, 2013

Aid organizations on ground in Philippines making inroads to devastated areas


By: Kage Gozun
Typhoon Haiyan first made landfall in the Philippines on Friday at 4:40am. It was recorded with wind speeds clocking in at 235mph. Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, swept through the Visayas region for two days, starting in the province of Eastern Samar, then across to the province of Leyte and exiting through islands of Palawan. Filipinos in these affected areas braced themselves for the worst.

But no one could imagine the devastation the typhoon would leave behind.

To put it bluntly, it was nothing short of catastrophic. The province of Leyte became the focus of media as reports began to filter in that the entire city of Tacloban had been decimated. Storm surges were so strong, ships were thrown on dry land. Power was down. Roads impassable. Even the strongest buildings could not stand against the force of Haiyan's winds and it would later come to light that the entire city had been leveled with 100% structural damage.

Search and rescue teams recovered bodies in the water, on streets, in the middle of fallen buildings. On the first day alone, the death toll was predicted to be in the thousands.

Imagine a city of 200,000 people completely destroyed. Now imagine what kind of havoc this typhoon caused in a smaller town, miles away from Tacloban, an area that was the first point of impact when Haiyan decided to literally blow through the Philippines. That town is Guiuan.

Guiuan sits on the edge of Eastern Samar. The sleepy town has slowly been gaining popularity in the Philippine surf as the new last frontier. ABCD break on Calicoan Island is a powerful lefthander that has been likened to Siargao's now famous Cloud 9. During the national competition last year, it turned itself on and produced 10- to 12-foot surf that made the international world sit up and take notice when photos hit the Internet.

The local surf community is small but making inroads in national competitions. Exposure to the larger surf crowd gave the island not only income but also opportunities for local surfers to up their game as they competed against the best surfers in the country.

And then the typhoon happened.

The Philippine surf community waited for news on Guiuan. And kept waiting. For most of Sunday, we waited and saw nothing on the news, nothing on the internet, nothing at all about Guiuan, Eastern Samar. No calls to friends were making it through. In the age of instant information, to not know immediately what the situation was down south was both frustrating and frightening.

When news finally made it to Manila, it broke the surf community's collective hearts. Aerial photos showed the extent of Haiyan's wrath. If Tacloban was decimated, Guiuan looked obliterated. Not a single building was left untouched, entire blocks of houses turned into nothing more than rubble and ruin. Not a single tree left standing. But, because there was no communication with residents and no way to get to them via land routes, we still had no word on how people were doing. All we had was conjecture. We could see where our friends' houses used to be but we didn't know where our friends were.

In the days since then we have learned that roads are mostly impassable and the best way to get sorely needed relief goods to the municipalities is through the small landing strip in Guiuan. There is no official count on deaths and casualties although word has gotten out that the tally is not as high as those in neighboring municipalities.

Today (November 12), there are two separate teams heading to Guiuan with relief goods and medical aid. One of them has members from Malibu-based The Surf Institute and will be carrying supplies for water filtration systems to provide clean drinking water. On Friday, another shipment is set to be deployed to Guiuan, with goods collected by the rest of the Philippine surf community, all of whom have pulled together to raise funds in their own breaks so they can send help to another.

Norman Dalora is a local surfer from Guiuan who was in Manila when the typhoon struck. He is among the volunteers going to Guiuan on November 12. When asked what he thinks about heading into the wreckage of his home he said, "The number one thing I want to do is see my family and my friends. I already know they are alive but I won't rest easy until I see them."

Dalora went on to say that he has accepted that their homes have been reduced to nothing but that houses can always be rebuilt. What matters most is that people are alive and will be getting help. "I want the donations to get to the people there because they haven't eaten in a long time and are very hungry."

To help:
- Donate to Waves for Water http://wavesforwater.org/project/typhoon-haiyan.
- Donate to ShelterBox for disaster relief by way of emergency shelters. http://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/shelterbox
- Donate to The Surf Institute. http://thesurfinstitute.com/fundraisers/missioncleanwater-super-typhoon-haiyan/
- Check your local Red Cross chapter to find out what relief goods or cash donations are still needed.