Philippines: Tacloban Refuge Site


  • Photographer
    Gloriann Liu
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    January, 2014
  • Technical Info
    Nikon D4

Leyte Island, Philippines was hit by Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan on 8/8/2013. Some of the strongest winds ever recorded drove on shore a wall of water up to twenty-five feet high with winds of over one hundred and forty miles an hour. The debris from the Tacloban area was taken to one site where people hired by the UN and the Philippine Government scavenge through the truck loads of waste and debris covering most of the island. Among the workers there were many children who were looking for metal to sell at the local junk store, making money to help support their families.

Story

Leyte Island, Philippines was hit by Typhoon Yolanda / Haiyan on November 8, 2013. Some of the strongest winds ever recorded drove on shore a wall of water up to twenty-five feet high with winds of over one hundred and forty miles an hour. The storm killed over ten thousand Filipinos and affected over fourteen million.

I arrived in Tacloban three months after Typhoon Yolanda’s wrath. I had made arrangements to live with the family of a friend from California. The Penero Family live in Alang-Alang, a small village about ten miles from Tacloban on Leyte Island. In late January, 2014 there was still no electricity or running water in their home.

The first week I traveled around the Island in a jeepney owned by the Penero family. Riding in a jeepney is is like riding in a cross between a WW-II jeep and a small school bus, but less comfortably. In a strange way, it was entertaining. Randy and Jo Ann, members of the family, were my appointed guides for the two weeks I was there .

The second week on the island we went every day to the Tacloban refuse site. All of the debris from the Tacloban area was taken to one site where there were people hired by the UN and the Philippine Government to scavenge through the truck loads of waste and debris covering most of the island. Among the workers there were many children who were looking for metal to sell at the local junk store. All of the children were making money to help support their families. There were many personal stories.

Melanie and Jason were part of a family team. They collected enough metal each day to buy the food their family needed daily. Jason was very observant of each object that he found. It was as if he were hunting for buried treasure.

Brian was at the site every day. He was always the first one to investigate a new load brought in by a dump truck. Brian was a loner and took his finds to his own area to be taken to the junk shop at the end of the day.

Jake was handicapped and used a crutch to walk. He was very social and made friends with everyone, including the other children, the workers and the heavy equipment operators. He lived with his older brother who was his caregiver. Their parents had abandoned them several years previously. I asked if I could go to their home. He seemed pleased and I followed him home. When we arrived he immediately showed me where he had hidden during the Typhoon. His brother was there and was working on the roof which had been destroyed during the storm. Jake showed me his room and a new crutch that a good Samaritan had given to him a week earlier. On the way back to the dump he introduced me to the people who worked in the junk shop where he sold his metal each day.

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