How has Typhoon Yolanda Impacted Filipino Households?

Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) struck Southeast Asia in early November 2013, with especially damaging consequences for large swathes of the Philippines. It was one of the deadliest typhoons on record, killing almost 6,000 people, though the final death toll is still being determined. Adding to the country’s woes, just a few weeks early in mid-October a 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the island province of Central Visayas killing and injuring hundreds with another 300,000 people displaced.

Researchers associated with the Igarapé Institute and the Enstiti Travay Sosyal ak Syans Sosyal (Institute of Social Work and Social Science) were based in Central Visayas before the Typhoon descended in the Philippines. They had been deployed with the intention of implementing a peer-led trauma intervention for adults with children in the area impacted by the earthquake. Team rapidly redirected resources to administer a rapid household survey assessing post-disaster needs in mid-November 2013.

The survey team of Filipinos, Haitians, Americans and Canadians interviewed 4,366 households encompassing a total of 20,524 individuals (with a response rate of around 83%). Using a proportional to population size (PPS) sampling approach, the team was able to assemble generalizable findings on food security, access to water, medical concerns, psychological problems, attitudes toward service providers, women’s livelihoods, mental health and crime. Such data, produced in close to real-time, can provide a useful baseline for identifying priorities and measuring progress over time.

Some of the findings, including those to food security and the effects of the disaster on children, confirmed what experts expected to be the case. Specifically, more than half of all households reportedly experienced hunger after the typhoon. Urban households were 8.97 times more likely to be food secure than rural households in the weeks after the typhoon. Likewise, children were 1.22 times more likely than adults to experience diarrhea and 2.43 times more likely to experience fevers in the weeks immediately following the incident.

The critical place of remittance support in shaping peoples wellbeing was also confirmed. Access to remittances from family members abroad served as a protective factor with respect to food security. Those receiving remittances or cash transfers after the typhoon were 4.72 times more likely to be food secure than other households. It is worth noting that the frequency of remittance flows from Filipinos working overseas grew continuously in 2013 – up to USD2 billion a month, a 6.6% increase on previous years.

The short- and medium-term impacts of the Typhoon on women and health stand out. Nearly half of all respondents (46.3%) surpassed the criteria for registering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Women were more likely than men to have been categorized as suffering from PTSD. And while gender-based violence outside the household was less frequently reported than in other post-disaster environments, physical and emotional abuse by intimate partners was a concern with 11.3% of all women revealing they had been physically abused since the typhoon.

Although sexual assault and harassment appear to be lower than reported in other post-disaster environments, there were indications of intimate partner violence. The greatest risk factors for intimate partner violence included being forced to relocate living places multiple times, living in a crowded environment, being from a rural area, and experiencing hunger. Staying with relatives, engaging in daily prayer, and having a male partner who was attempting to work were associated with lower rates of such victimization. An overlooked need during and after disasters relates to female reproductive and hygiene care. Few women stated that they had access to feminine hygiene supplies and most women who were sexually active stated that they did not have access to birth control.

The survey highlights a host of risks and vulnerabilities confronting Filipinos in disaster-affected areas. It also underlines protective factors and impressive coping strategies, not least in relation to remittances from abroad. The assessment emphasizes the differential impacts of the disaster between urban and rural regions, but also the ways in which effects are segmented across demographic groups. Such data can be used to help shape baselines and set short-term priorities, but also to measure and evaluate whether needs are being met in the medium- to long-term. A major casualty in any natural disaster is rapid and reliable data on the scope and scale of impacts on populations. This rapid household survey highlights the possibility of gathering solid quantitative data within weeks of a traumatic emergency.

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Athena Kolbe is a clinical social worker and a doctoral candidate in Social Work and Political Science at the University of Michigan. Kolbe currently serves as the Director of Social Work Education at the Enstiti Travay Sosyal ak Syans Sosyal in Petion-ville, Haiti.

Dr. Robert Muggah is the Research Director of the Igarapé Institute, Research Director of the SecDev Foundation, and teaches at the Instituto de Relações Internacionais, in Rio de Janeiro. He is also a fellow at the University of Oxford and the Graduate Institute in Switzerland.

This note is based on a new study: Athena Kolbe, Marie Puccio, Marvin Bautista, Erika Childs, Leah James, Robert Muggah, Juan Masipag, and Almathe Jean (2013) Assessing Needs After the Super Typhoon: Results From a Random Household Survey in Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, and Palawan, Igarape Institute Working Paper. See www.igarape.org.br.