🇵🇭 Typhoon Rolly batters the Philippines

It's the third typhoon in just two weeks to hit the archipelago

November 02, 2020

Hello friends

Awful news from the Philippines today. It should all be All Souls Day weekend, but instead, the country is reeling from a terrible few days amid a devastating typhoon season.

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Stay safe out there,Erin Cook

(The clean up in the aftermath begins in Pandan, Catanduanes c/o the local municipality government)

The latest

At least 10 people have died and three others are missing following the Typhoon Rolly landfall, Reuters reports. The death toll is likely to climb with reports of others being buried in landslides currently being verified.

Typhoon Rolly, known elsewhere as Typhoon Goni, is the third typhoon to smash the Philippines in just a fortnight and has the dubious honour of being the world’s most intense storm so far.

Hundreds of thousands — both in the direct path of the typhoon and other communities susceptible to flooding — were evacuated Saturday in anticipation of the landfall. Parts of Metro Manila were evacuated with fears the capital would be struck but, thankfully, the city dodged most of the worst of it all. At least one province has declared a state of calamity. Emergency response authorities say 19 million Filipinos are likely to be affected by the end.

Where is Duterte?

President Duterte has been conspicuously missing. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and presidential staff took the lead in addressing the country while Duterte was back in his hometown of Davao City ahead of All Souls Day holiday.

“Upon his instructions, we are here at the NDRRMC office to hold this live press briefing. It is also upon his orders that Cabinet members leading the efforts in assisting people affected by Typhoon Rolly are here,” spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.

The Philippine Star newspaper, for one, isn’t buying it:

In the past, however, the Philippine leader has been able to hold his weekly public address on the coronavirus crisis from his hometown, with other officials who could not fly then to the province joining him via teleconference. Roque added that while Duterte is possible to make an address, he could not say exactly when.

The president, in one public address back in August, had also remarked that a leader is someone who "would always stay where the crisis is."

"You shouldn't wander off if the country is facing a problem," Duterte said in Filipino.

Now what?

The Philippines is no stranger to the recovery process, not that that makes it any easier. Add to it the on-going pandemic and we’ve got a very tough road ahead. Donation drives are ramping up in the Philippines now and international partners will surely have links ready to go soon.

Like Typhoon Quinta just a week ago, Rolly is expected to weaken while moving across the South China Sea and will likely make landfall with Vietnam in the coming days though, thankfully, downgraded to a tropical storm.

The Pacific typhoon season typically ends in October but has been exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

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