ReliefWeb

C. SITUATION ANALYSIS

Description of the disaster

Typhoon Mangkhut made landfall in Baggao, Cagayan province at 1:40am of 15 September as a Category 4 typhoon, making it the strongest storm to make landfall in the Philippines in 2018, carrying a gustiness of up to 255 km/h with maximum sustained winds of 205km/h near the centre. Typhoon Mangkhut exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on the morning of 16 September 2018. The area’s most severely impacted by Typhoon Mangkhut were Regions I, II, III and CAR in northern and central Luzon.
The Typhoon affected a total of 931,892 families or 3,816,989 persons from 6,504 barangays, 491 cities/municipalities, and 31 provinces in Regions NCR, I, II, III, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and CAR according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s DROMIC report on 6 November. Typhoon Mangkhut had displaced 1,570,804 people or 398,640 families on its onset. This led for people to stay in evacuation centres or with host families or similar.
Subsequently, Typhoon Yutu made landfall over Dinapigue, Isabela province (directly south of Cagayan) on 30 October as a Category 2 typhoon. Yutu affected more than 567,000 people (more than 136,000 families) in 1,921 barangays in almost 200 municipalities across five regions (DROMIC 18 November). 66,165 houses were damaged, of which 6,603 were totally destroyed. More than 90 per cent of the damaged houses were in Isabela. Damage to agriculture is estimated at PHP 2.9 billion (CHF 55 million), of which almost 60 per cent were also reported in Isabela.

Summary of current response

Overview of Host National Society

PRC monitored the typhoon through its Operations Centre, which functions 24/7. As soon as the typhoon entered the Philippine area of responsibility, PRC put its chapters directly in the path of the typhoon on alert and escalated preparations at the chapter and National HQ levels, started to deploy ERU’s, rapid assessment teams, assets, equipment and personnel to the likely affected areas. PRC NHQ and the IFRC country office were also mobilized to prepare to respond.

Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in country

PRC is leading the overall response operation. The PRC works with the IFRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and 7 Partner National Societies in-country – American Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross, German Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross Society, The Netherlands Red Cross and Spanish Red Cross.

Movement Coordination

The IFRC country office is supporting PRC in disseminating updates to Movement partners with in-country presence and coordinating with the Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) in Kuala Lumpur in accordance with the IFRC Secretariat’s Emergency Response Framework. IFRC country office is also coordinating with PNSs and remains in close contact with ICRC on any security-related considerations.

Overview of non-RCRC actors in country

Coordinating with the authorities

As auxiliary to the public authorities, PRC maintains a strong relationship with government bodies through participation or collaboration with (i) the NDRRMC; (ii) the provincial, municipal and barangay (community) disaster risk reduction and management councils; and (iii) the local government units defined in the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act 2010. PRC participates in NDRRMC meetings and coordinates with the DSWD and Department of Health.
PRC attended the PDRA meetings convened by the NDRRMC on 10 and 13 September, which were also was attended by government agencies, cluster lead agencies, and other partners. The NDRRMC was put on Red Alert on 11 September. PAGASA and NDRRMC provided updates including on preparedness measures, stocks of NFIs and other resources; weather forecasts/advisories and gale warnings to regional counterparts and other agencies through formal updates.

Inter-agency coordination

At country level, PRC and IFRC are observers to, and participate in, meetings of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) held both during disasters and non-emergency times. PRC and IFRC are involved in relevant government-led cluster information sharing, planning, and analysis at all levels while IFRC supports PRC coordination efforts through representation in other relevant clusters as required.

IFRC is co-leader of the Shelter Cluster with government lead agency Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The IFRC coordination focal point in country is coordinating with OCHA and sector partners to provide strategic and technical guidance for the response based on participation to inter-cluster coordination meetings, inter-agency rapid needs assessments in the affected areas and sectoral strategic framework development.
The IFRC, as Global Shelter Cluster lead agency for natural disasters, deployed a shelter cluster coordinator to further co-lead with DSWD on sector coordination tasks for two months. In addition to supporting shelter sector coordination and ensuring appropriate information for operations and decision making, the surge coordinator assisted in the revision of the shelter response strategy, the coordination of technical standards, the implementation of appropriate immediate shelter interventions and assist in the planning for gaps in the shelter and settlements sector as required and requested by the government.