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Day Sixteen – Super Typhoon Yolanda

November 23, 2013 – 8:51 am
The CASDDA team cares for their dogs in a shady spot

After my morning of running errands yesterday (buying alcohol fuel for my stove and food), my plans were to go out with my camera. However, it continued to rain, and there wasn’t much point to it. I hung out at the pension house drinking coffee, reading, making something to eat, and trying desperately to endure the children. I eventually had to lay down some ground …

Days Fourteen & Fifteen – Super Typhoon Yolanda

November 22, 2013 – 1:03 pm
Destruction in the Magallanes District of Tacloban

Dan did manage to contact his friend the bicycle mechanic. This fellow works at the Bohol bicycle shop, and Dan arranged to be the very first customer on Monday morning when they plan to open their doors. He offered to go there with me and help me get my bike into the system to be worked on as soon as possible. The plan is to …

Day Thirteen – Super Typhoon Yolanda

November 21, 2013 – 11:19 am
Members of the CASDDA team and their trained dogs

I finally encountered my first Canadians among the relief organizations. They consisted, to my joy, of a group of four people with cadaver-sniffing dogs. The four dogs are large, beautiful animals of all different breeds. I was sitting with the BFP team when the Canadians returned from a mission with their dogs. They are part of a larger team effort and were assigned to work …

Day Twelve – Super Typhoon Yolanda

November 20, 2013 – 9:32 am
C-130 Evacuates people from Tacloban after the typhoon

A lot of things have been puzzling me about this typhoon and in particular my experience of it. And yesterday, I had the chance to talk to a couple of journalists. Their questions brought into focus some of the details and brought back some of my memories of what had happened.
Considering the horrific aftermath of the typhoon, it’s been puzzling me why it wasn’t taken …

Day Eleven – Super Typhoon Yolanda

November 19, 2013 – 2:15 pm
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My experience of the typhoon continues to deepen, as yesterday I had the opportunity to go out with a Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) team as they retrieved bodies. Members of the BFP are staying at this pension house with me, and it was they that they suggested I go along. I’m not sure that I would have had the nerve to ask to accompany …

Day Ten – Super Typhoon Yolanda

November 18, 2013 – 1:26 pm
Spray painted sign on the wall of a building in Tacloban City

The rain let up a little bit in the afternoon yesterday, and I went out for a walk. I was interested in going to City Hall to see what was going on there. I kept hearing more and more about City Hall and it seemed that, short of a trip out to the airport, this was the place to go to see what is happening.
The …

Day Nine – Super-Typhoon Yolanda

November 17, 2013 – 12:54 pm
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It rained again throughout the night and the morning yesterday. That kept me in and around the pension house. When the sky cleared in the early afternoon, I finally set off with my camera to explore the other side of the Tacloban shoreline and make my way up to the Astrodome.
The streets with their piles of debris and mud and trees and vehicles and furniture …

Day Eight – Super-Typhoon Yolanda

November 16, 2013 – 10:38 am
Gathering up a trickle of water for washing clothes

It rained a great deal during the night, but the sun has come up this morning in clear skies. It remains to be seen if the rain will hold off during the day.
The rest of the afternoon and evening yesterday was spent relaxing and caring for my various wounds. Almost every task was difficult as I kept coming up against the injured finger on my …