The extent of dam­age caused by Typhoon Haiyan (local­ly named Yolan­da) that
hit the cen­tral Philip­pines on Fri­day is still being assessed with the death
toll upgrad­ed to at least 100, many injured and half a mil­lion made homeless. 

Sus­tained winds of 235 kph (147 mph) with gusts of 275 kph (170 mph) hit
the cen­tral Philip­pines, sweep­ing away homes, build­ings, block­ing roads with
fall­en trees, and dis­rupt­ing pow­er and communications.
 
Ham Emer­gency Radio Oper­a­tor (HERO) Thel­ma Pas­cua DU1IVT said emer­gency communications
was still car­ry­ing essen­tial traf­fic as the res­cue and relief effort continues. 

Thel­ma DU1VT said, “We have estab­lished a good HF com­mu­ni­ca­tion link with
Tacloban City. DX5RAN (RADNET or Dis­trict 5 Radio Ama­teur Net­work) is operating
at the Tacloban City Hall pow­ered by a gen­er­a­tor and using a wire antenna. 

“Exchanges on air are for emer­gency, pri­or­i­ty or wel­fare traf­fic to and from
Leyte Province. This may take days while oth­er means of com­mu­ni­ca­tions are
yet to be restored.” 

Tacloban City is on one the hard­est-hit Leyte Island. It was one of six islands
that the typhoon slammed into on Fri­day. Sur­vivors shel­ter­ing in damaged
homes described how the noise sound­ed like a jum­bo jet was fly­ing over their
roofs. 

She said that the Nation­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion was mon­i­tor­ing the
traf­fic on the HERO net­works using the 40m and 2m bands.
 
Thel­ma DU1VT said, “Also, even with­out com­mer­cial pow­er, an ama­teur club
DX7BC in Bohol (recent­ly dev­as­tat­ed by the mag­ni­tude 7.1 earth­quake)) is
with us on 7.095 MHz, ready to relay in case prop­a­ga­tion becomes poor between
DU1 and DU5. 

“Bohol is on the east­ern side of Leyte. We admire these hams, with such a
short break from their relief and human­i­tar­i­an oper­a­tions (caused by the
earth­quake)), here they are again ready to help out in com­mu­ni­ca­tions. They
are in the Gov­er­nor’s place as the com­mand centre.” 

High rank­ing gov­ern­ment offi­cials are expect­ed to use a HERO link manned
by Nathan Eamiguel DU5AOK, to com­mu­ni­cate with the Nation­al Dis­as­ter and
Risk Reduc­tion Council. 

The Philip­pines Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (PARA) had acti­vat­ed the HERO operators
in advance of Typhoon Haiyan hit­ting land and have been in use ever since. 

After leav­ing the Philip­pines the fast-mov­ing typhoon is head­ed across the
South Chi­na Sea and oth­er coun­tries, Chi­na and Vietnam.
  
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.