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In Pictures: One year after Haiyan

Thousands of families still in limbo as the Philippines struggles to recover from the devastating typhoon.

Palo, Leyte - Farmer Virginia Pedrera harvests vegetables from her lush garden in an interior village in the outskirts of Tacloban. She said she could not rely on government help to rebuild, and with the help of a relief agency began replanting a piece of land she rents. She now is trying to encourage neighbours and survivors to help themselves one year after Haiyan. 
By Jason Gutierrez
Published On 6 Nov 2014

Tacloban, Philippines – Thousands of families still live in evacuation sites in the central Philippines one year after super typhoon Haiyan crashed into the islands with devastating force.

At least 6,300 people were killed, with many more missing and unaccounted for. The typhoon was the strongest in history to hit land, catching many by surprise in the Southeast Asian country used to being battered by more than 20 storms a year. Surging waves wiped out entire coastal communities, and millions were left homeless.

As the Philippines marks the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, many are still struggling to rebuild and to gather up the pieces of their shattered lives. At the San Jose campsite, children walk barefoot on muddy roads, and families sleep in tents that are beginning to fray at the seams. When it rains, water seeps into the ground. There are many nights when survivors have to sleep sitting down, the children cheek to jowl under their arms.

In the city proper, there remains little trace of the tragedy – shops and restaurants are bustling, and homes have been repainted and rebuilt. But beyond the city limits, in areas where poverty sidelined many even before the typhoon, physical scars remain. In the village of Baybay, what used to be beautiful fishing homes remain as shattered structures. Boats lie idle – many because they cannot summon the will to go back to the sea that gave them life, but also reclaimed it with devastating fury. And underneath the calm surface, tonnes of debris have remained and pose potential hazards.

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Mornings offer a quiet reprieve from the struggles, but as the sun peaks at noon, the heat becomes unbearable, as the suffocating smell of latrines mix with the salty sea air. While many are about to lose hope of ever resuming their regular lives, there are those who have decided to pick themselves up rather than wait for government aid that has taken long to arrive.

RELATED: Philippines: After Haiyan

One of them is Virginia Pedrera who has successfully replanted a small plot of farmland with beans and okra, which she sells at the local market for much needed money. The income has now helped her rebuild her small home and inspire her neighbours. Through the help of the aid group Catholic Relief Services, she bought seeds and farm implements, and now harvests vegetables every two months, earning thousands of pesos.

“When the winds came, our home was blown away. We huddled under the debris and used the tin roofing for protection,” the mother of five said. “We didn’t want to stay in the evacuation centre because it was crowded.”

She said waiting for aid was frustrating, especially in remote interior communities as relief and rehabilitation efforts focused on rebuilding infrastructure.

“We couldn’t rely on anyone but ourselves,” she said.

A young girl prepares to go to school while nearby homes remain in various stages of being rebuilt. 
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Children have been identified as among the most vulnerable, and relief agencies say large numbers of pregnancies in evacuation camps remain another challenge as the typhoon zone transitions into recovery phase.
A mother and her child while away the time at a packed evacuation site.
A boy plays outside a tent donated by the UN.
Children wait for their rice to cook as dawn breaks over the evacuation camp in San Jose, Tacloban. 
A woman wades through shallow waters to collect shells at a seaside community in Tacloban, which bore the brunt of Haiyan. Fishermen say the catch has been dwindling with the bay still littered with toxic debris, a year after the storm.
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A child waits for food at an evacuation camp.
A toddler wanders around an evacuation site.
Villagers pass by a (***)no build zone(***) marker in the destroyed fishing village of Baybay.
Men continue to slowly rebuild their homes in Tacloban, one year after Haiyan.
A mother and her baby wait for aid at an evacuation camp.
A boy peeks out of his family(***)s tent at daybreak at an evacuation site in a fishing community in Tacloban.
Crosses are erected on a 1.3 hectare plot at the Holy Spirit Cemetery donated by the city government for some 3,000 unidentified victims of the super typhoon Haiyan.
The once unmarked wooden crosses now bear names of the missing, after survivors looking for some closure adopted them as a symbolic gesture of healing.