Even With Aid, Ravaged Philippine City Ponders a Grim Road Ahead
Bryan Denton for The New York Times
A family in Guiuan outside a makeshift shelter they constructed after their home was destroyed. The town bore the full brunt of Typhoon Haiyan. More Photos »
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: November 17, 2013
GUIUAN, the Philippines — The Swedish Air Force brought German relief workers. The Australians delivered hulking pallets of water and food. The United States Navy dispatched so many supplies-laden Ospreys, Seahawks and C-130s on Sunday that the commanding officer in charge of the airport here lost count.
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It is fair to say that the American-built airstrip that serves this ravaged city of 47,000 has not seen so much activity since the end of World War II, when American forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed here during their battle to wrest the Philippines from the occupying Japanese. The residents were so grateful, they named a town nearby in his honor.
For residents of Guiuan, the first city to meet the fury of Typhoon Haiyan head on, the help could not have come a moment too soon.
“The first days after the storm struck, we felt so helpless, like we were dying,” said Mary Ann Mercado, a 19-year-old college student, as she sat in front of the rubble of her home. “Now it seems we might have hope after all.”
Walking around the tangled remains of this once-pleasant seaside community, it is hard to feel much hope. The typhoon’s monstrous winds made quick work of the city’s pastel-colored guesthouses, government buildings and wooden shacks; the storm killed 99 people and left 2,700 injured. Not a single roof was left intact, including that of the city’s Spanish Baroque basilica, a 17th-century icon that was among the oldest churches in the Philippines.
“The devastation was so complete, it stripped the leaves off every last tree,” said Capt. Neil F. Williams of the United States Navy, who is overseeing operations at Guiuan’s airport. “It was grim.”
Residents say the first few days were apocalyptic. Desperate people overwhelmed the few police officers in town as they cleared out supermarkets and corner stores. But since late last week, a surge of Philippine soldiers and police officers have calmed nerves and paved the way for an influx of relief workers, including a crew of swashbuckling French firefighters, paramedics from New York City and a team of volunteers from Manila, the Philippine capital, who have filled the grassy area next to City Hall with their color-coordinated tents. Surgeons from Doctors Without Borders, among the first to arrive, have been busy stitching up lacerations in the shell of a community clinic.
The clang of hammers on nails filled the air, as residents turned scavenged planks and sheets of corrugated metal into makeshift shelters, often within the ruins of their former homes. There were a few other milestones on Sunday: a Philippine phone company set up a satellite dish, restoring limited cellphone service, and a gas station began pumping fuel, albeit with a half-gallon limit.
Evelyn Machica, 23, whose small convenience store was destroyed by the typhoon, was the first in line, having waited six hours in the wilting sun. Behind her, hundreds of people, empty plastic bottles in hand, waited patiently.
“Without gas, we are all stuck here, and I need to find food for my parents,” said Ms. Machica, a wad of gauze covering the gash on her head caused by a collapsing wall that fell during the height of the storm.
President Benigno S. Aquino III briefly came to town on Sunday, and he offered words of encouragement to workers at City Hall. The mayor, Christopher Sheen Gonzales, has been lauded as a hero across the Philippines, having orchestrated the forced evacuation of Guiuan’s low-lying areas, a move widely credited with saving countless lives. Still, all of the city’s 18 designated shelters were felled by the winds, killing 10 of those who sought refuge inside.
Unlike Tacloban, where at least 800 people were killed, most of them swept away by a 13-foot wall of seawater, according to Tacloban’s mayor, Alfred S. Romualdez, Guiuan was largely spared a deadly storm surge. “We have nothing left, but at the same time, we feel lucky,” said Guiuan’s vice mayor, Rogelio Cablao.
With the sudden deluge of donated food keeping stomachs full, there was almost a carnival-like feel to the streets on Sunday as people returned home from a distribution center with plastic bags of rice and American military logistics experts and foreign medics strolled through the streets.
Nearly everyone smiled and waved as they sat amid the stunning ruination, a few salvaged items of clothing drying in the sun. In Quinapondan, a few dozen miles up the coast, hundreds of people showed up for Sunday Mass, hair freshly washed, and sang hymns beneath the shorn-open roof of their church.
But during conversations, the smiles faded as people pondered the road ahead. Elenita Bagores, an unemployed teacher, put on her best face as she and her 15-year-old daughter, Rica, washed out blankets and school clothes in a pail. Behind them sat a pile of lime-green wood that had been their home.
Like most people here, Ms. Bagores had no insurance and no savings. With her daughter’s school destroyed, she was unsure how Rica might continue her education. “Everyone is in the same situation, so it’s not like anyone here can help us,” she said, overcome with tears. “To be honest, I don’t see how we are going to rebuild our lives.”
As night fell, a full moon rose above the town, illuminating the smoke from hundreds of cooking fires and giving the desolation an almost magical glow.
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