The lat­est offi­cial death toll in the Philip­pines from the world’s strongest
typhoon ever to reach land on Novem­ber 8 has reached 5,719, with 1,779 still
missing.

After weeks of deploy­ment the Philip­pines Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (PARA)
has stood down its HERO (Ham Emer­gency Radio Oper­a­tions) Net­work, although
some still remain in the dis­as­ter clean-up.

PARA Vice Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, Ramon Anquilan DU1UGZ said while this
has occurred, four sta­tions (Thel­ma DU1IVT, Jojo DU1VHY, Romy DV1SMQ and
Pan­ny DU1EQ) are mon­i­tor­ing for any assis­tance from the local HERO stations.

There is a long way to go in the after­math of this dis­as­ter with over 26,000
injured, four mil­lion peo­ple dis­placed, 1.2 mil­lion hous­es destroyed and
exten­sive dam­age to agri­cul­ture and infra­struc­ture in the cen­tral Philippines.

He said that PARA and its HERO Net­work sta­tions realise that a tremendous
amount of vital emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions has been giv­en to res­cue and relief
agen­cies, but still has plen­ty of tasks ahead.

Ramon DU1UGZ said this includes accu­rate­ly doc­u­ment­ing what has occurred
with the HERO Net­work, gain­ing recog­ni­tion by the author­i­ties and communities,
and fur­ther­ing of its role in dis­as­ter preparedness.

Already greater recog­ni­tion of HERO is start­ing to appear among the authorities,
and PARA is mak­ing sure its role is not lost in the enor­mi­ty of this tragic
disaster.

The hard hit Tacloban area is where Gen­er­al Dou­glas MacArthur land­ed in 1944
to oust the invad­ing forces from the Philip­pines dur­ing World War II.

In Tacloban and the rest of East­ern Visayas, ACCESS‑5 con­tin­ues to be embedded
with the Com­mand Post Nation­al Dis­as­ter Risk Reduc­tion and Man­age­ment Council
(NDRRMC) in Tacloban City. Oper­a­tors are Jer­ick DV5JMS, Mario 4F5MM, and
Pio DW5PIO.
 
ACCESS‑5 Tacloban is now aug­ment­ed by some 35 ACCESS‑5 mem­bers from Catbalogan,
Samar and Burauen, Leyte.  The addi­tion­al peo­ple make their roles in the
clean-up and recov­ery oper­a­tions more manageable.
 
The PARA Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al, Butch Pacana DU1RP drove from Davao City to visit
HERO sta­tions in Boron­gan, East­ern Samar and Tacloban City.

While in Boron­gan, he had the chance to act as couri­er for the SitRep (Sit­u­a­tion
Report) from East­ern Samar to Tacloban City.  The report car­ried by Butch
DU1RP is the very first offi­cial sit­u­a­tion report from East­ern Samar.

This great­ly helped provin­cial offi­cials find a suit­able means of transport
to Tacloban. His report is that HERO oper­a­tors are cop­ing well and up to
the task.

Still on Boron­gan, the Don Bosco offi­cials main­tain their HF link between
Boron­gan, East­ern Samar, Cebu and Man­daluy­ong in met­ro­pol­i­tan Mani­la, to
try and nor­malise youth activities.

In the Cen­tral Visayas, Iver DV6ILA is still oper­a­tional at the Capiz Provincial
Dis­as­ter Risk Reduc­tion and Man­age­ment Coun­cil (PDRRMC) in Rox­as City.

The sig­nal of Iver DV6ILA has con­sid­er­ably increased with the dona­tion of
an Icom IC730 to the sta­tion by Bing Rodriguez DU6RCR, with a suit­able microphone
loaned by Bob Gar­cia DU6BG.

Arnel DV6WAV reports that elec­tric­i­ty is back at the Capiz State University
where he’s a pro­fes­sor and has acti­vat­ed anoth­er VHF/HF station.

Oth­er HERO sta­tions also remain active, occa­sion­al­ly report­ing on their activities
and giv­ing progress reports on the restora­tion of services.

Ramon DU1UGZ said that PARA now had a per­mit to import equip­ment, and its
Board will meet on the place­ment and use.

He acknowl­edged a dona­tion by Patrick Prescott KC1AJT who sent a package
con­tain­ing an Alin­co DX-SR8J HF trans­ceiv­er, and an Alin­co EDX2 tuner by
Stan­ley Jun­gleib WA6LVC. ARRL Ham Aid Kits are also expect­ed by the PARA
Office.

In the media rela­tions both Nathan Eamiguel DU5AOK and Ramon Anquilan DU1UGZ
have fea­tured with a 40–minute inter­view on the GMA Net­work AM radio station
DZBB on Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 23.

“The pro­gram’s host, Fran­cis ‘Kiko’ Flo­res, wel­comed the par­tic­i­pa­tion of
ama­teur radio in the emergency.

“He recalled his own expe­ri­ences in the 1991 Baguio earth­quake where he personally
expe­ri­enced the use­ful­ness of ama­teur radio emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions,” said
Ramon DU1UGZ.

That inter­view was in addi­tion to those on BBC radio, and NPR in the United
States organ­ised by the ARRL.

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.