Humanitarian community on standby with Typhoon Rammasun

Typhoon Rammasun (known locally as Glenda) is the first typhoon to strike the Philippines since Super Typhoon Haiyan on 8 November 2013. The typhoon crossed large areas of South Luzon, Albay and through Metro Manila, heading towards Bataan. It is expected to leave the Philippines Area of Responsibility by Thursday morning.

“We are in close communication with respective government counterparts as well as the Humanitarian Country Team and field offices for constant updates on the latest situation,” said Luiza Carvalho, the Humanitarian Coordinator.

The typhoon was projected to affect 22 provinces with a population of 43 million of which 136,000 households live in areas highly susceptible to landslides and storm surge. Half of these households, about 342,200 people, are poor. Evacuations have taken place in vulnerable areas on a needs basis.

The Government’s new response approach of augmenting the capacity of affected regions with a twin province from an unaffected area will be activated according to needs.

So far national and local authorities are responding with teams and pre-positioned items such as food, non-food items, medicines and health-related aid. Logistics and telecommunications are available to the most needed areas and two C130 aircraft with helicopters are available for relief operations, if required.

The Humanitarian Coordinator continued, “A Task Force from the humanitarian community was set up to agree on additional measures to enhance our readiness to respond and remains on standby.”

The Philippines is affected by more than 20 typhoons every year.

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For further information, please contact: Orla Fagan, Public Information Officer, OCHA Manila, fagano@un.org, Tel. +63 9175977219 Kristen Elsby, Regional Public Information Officer, OCHA Bangkok, elsby@un.org, Tel. +662288 2856, Cell +669 280 0982