Typhoon Haiyan: Day 7.

Yes Friday November 15th 2013 (15/11/13) that is the one week anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda nee Haiyan striking the Philippines a full 3 hours before it was expected.

Of the estimated 10 million people affected by this natural disaster only around 18% (1.8 million) have been reached by the disaster relief effort. Obviously this is not OK. However rather then being caused by laziness or incompentence this merely reflects the scale of the tragedy. For example the number of provinces without electrical power has now been cut from 11 to 5 and all provinces have had some level of celluar telecommunications restored with the average being 70% and Eastern Samar being the worst affected with only 14% restored.

In a nation where the majority of the population are in shock, homeless, hungry and in need of clean drinking water making sure that all their televisions and radios work might sound like a strange first priority. However the national electrical supply also powers lights, water pumps and things like hospitals. It also powers the national communications infrastructure. Now that this communications infrastructure is beginning to work a clearer picture of the damage is begining to emerge. For example we now know that electrical power has not been restored to certain areas due to the failure of 556 damaged pylons and 7 damaged substations.

In terms of immediate aid (1.Water, 2.Shelter, 3.Food) it has been arriving in ever increasing volumes since Sunday (9/11/13). The problem is that it has largely been arriving at Manila's international airport where it is being loaded off aircraft and stacked in neat rows. In order to get to those affected by Haiyan this aid next needs to be sorted, loaded onto another aircraft and flown to the six Filipino islands for distribution.

The largest and hardest hit of these is Leyte which is served by one airport in the island capital Tacloban. At the best of times this hardly counts as an international airport because rarely deals with large jets and doesn't allow for nightflights. With both of the two runways being roughly 200 metres (600ft) from the sea it goes without saying that it also was badly damaged by the storm surge which brought 14 mtres (45ft) of sea water, cars, houses and associated debris onto the runways.

Since their arrival on Monday (11/11/13) the advance party of US Marines (USMC) and Air Force (USAF) personel having being working to re-open Tacloban airport. They now seem to have achieved this although an argument seems to persist over whether the US military or the Filippino government should pay to upgrading the airport for night flights. Generally I would say that it's the Filipino government's responsibilty just as soon as the US military can get a contractor in.

Fortunately though whilst that argument has been going on the Philippines single C130 and the US's C130 have been bolstered somewhat by at least; a C17 and a C130 from the UK, a C17 and C130 from Australia, 3 C130's from Indonesia, 2 from Singapore and 2 from Malaysia along with a fair few creaky Antanov's from various nations and at least 2 undisclosed large transport aircraft for Israel. These at least 15 Globemaster/Hercules type aircraft give the USAF just enough capacity to set up and control an air bridge between Manila international airport on Luzon island and Tacloban airport on Leyte island.

Of course once the aid products have been transported to Tacloban airport they then need to be distributed across the remaining 6 affected islands. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by helicopter or STOL aircraft. Fortunately on Friday (15/11/13) the USS George Washington carrier group arrived off the coast of Leyte bring with it at least 21 UH-60 Blackhawk type helicopters to compliment the Philippines 50 UH-1 helicopters and the USMC 4 V-22 Ospreys. Further helping the effort the UK is now going to replace HMS Daring with HMS Illustrious which is now being tactfully described as a "helicopter platform" and may even bring one AW101 Merlin with it. Personally I'm just hoping this just turn into a big argument between the UK and the US over the F-35 Joint Srike Fighters.

Elsewhere in international aid news China has contributed a full USD100,000 to the relief effort. This has obviously provoked some discussion with many in the Philippines questioning why China has made such little effort. The Chinese state media has responded by either suggesting that if the Filipinoes have got enough money to buy weapons they don't need international aid or demanding that the Philippines give the money back. So in summary it appears that Chinese official response to this disaster has been to try and be as offensive as possible. This seems to be a deliberate attempt to inform the US of the general regional consensus in the wake of the Rihanna operation and provide them with an opportunity to make a large gesture. After all it would be a lot easier for the Philippines traditional ally to aid with the relief effort rather then their traditional enemy.

As usual Israel has been quite interesting flying two C130's to the Philippines with at least one containing a full feild hospital. On around Wednesday (13/11/13) there were rumours that these aircraft attempted to land at Tacloban airport with orders to take over the local hospital. However as the rumour goes they were refused permission to land so instead flew on to Cebu island where they have now set up their feild hospital and built a landing strip. Israel now has at least 1 C130 going spare and much clearer idea about what it will take to break out from Leyte. In the meantime Australia has also dispatched a feild hospital.

Sadly the Filipino government has, as yet, failed to declare martial law meaning that the relief effort is still being hampered by local political disputes and the effort to re-open Tacloban airport continues to be hampered by the large group of, well, unemployed people milling around outside.

Obviously all of these logistical problems mean nothing without finacial support so while the accountants of my celebrity readers should all be aware of the SWIFT code by now for lesser mortals I can always recommend; https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon-philippines-a 

23:25 on 15/11/13 (UK date). Spell check is still not working so I apologise if I've spelt most things wrong.