Pow­er­ful Typhoon Haiyan (local­ly named Yolan­da), the strongest ever to hit
land, struck the cen­tral Philip­pines on Fri­day, killing at least four people,
cut­ting ser­vices, leav­ing the task of pro­vid­ing shel­ter, wel­fare and the
mas­sive clean-up. 

Ramon Anquilan DU1UGZ, of the Philip­pines Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (PARA),
reports that the Ham Emer­gency Radio Oper­a­tor (HERO) has been help­ing authorities
with their reports and messages. 

“They helped track the destruc­tive storm, its fierce wind, rain­fall, storm
surges, dam­age, plus out­ages of com­mu­ni­ca­tions and oth­er services. 

“HERO net­work sta­tions did this through PARA using ama­teur radio on 7.095MHz,
144.740MHz and via social media,” said Ramon DU1UGZ. 

The storm uproot­ed trees and brought down many pow­er lines. Among HERO reports
was news of the offi­cial pre emp­tive evac­u­a­tions along exposed coastal areas
in the hours before the typhoon arrived.
  
Oth­ers were alert­ed about flash floods and land­slides. Author­i­ties had warned
more than 12 mil­lion peo­ple were at risk. The dis­as­ter plan­ning potentially
saved many lives. 

While mil­lions of peo­ple in 20 provinces are in shel­ters, the full extent
of casu­al­ties and dam­age will take author­i­ties sev­er­al days to gather.
 
Ramon DU1UGZ said also affect­ed was Bohol and Cebu, which suf­fered damage
from a 7.2 mag­ni­tude earth­quake in Octo­ber, killing 222 peo­ple and leaving
at least 5,000 shel­ter­ing in tents. The HERO Net­work also assist­ed in that
disaster.
 
Through­out the cur­rent typhoon the Fil­ipino spir­it was high. As it approached,
the Philip­pine Pres­i­dent Benig­no Aquino urged all to take every safe­ty measure
possible. 

“I thought it best to speak to you to empha­sise the grav­i­ty of the calamity
our coun­try­men will face in these com­ing days, and to ask of every­one cooperation
and sol­i­dar­i­ty,” the Pres­i­dent said. In the res­cue effort was the air force,
army and navy.
 
As the unprece­dent­ed dis­as­ter unfolds, those already pledg­ing their support
include the Euro­pean Union, UNICEF, Red Cross and many oth­er non-government
aid and relief organisations. 

Typhoon Haiyan, the 23rd and strongest storm to hit the Philip­pines this
year is now head­ed towards oth­er countries. 

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