Rai Ruined Christmas
Typhoon Rai is the biggest storm yet - she swept the Philippines that left 300 dead or missing and half a million homeless on Christmas Day.
What better way to start the year than the climate-crisis-induced storm that displaced half a million people?
There were some positive events that have unfolded this year, such as the distribution of the vaccines where we saw half the world get jabbed and we were slowly seeing what we call “normal” making its return, the legalization of marijuana, and Britney Spears finally free from her conservatorship. However, 2021 is still a terrible year: new strains emerged and we witnessed the dominance of the aggressive Delta variant, as well as seeing the rise of the new Omicron variant; Texas introduced the harsh SB8 bill that is a near-total ban of abortion; and the cherry on top to this year is the Super Typhoon that scoured the Philippines this Christmas.
“There are some areas that look like it has been bombed worse than World War II”
– Richard Gordon, Chair of the Philippine Red Cross
The storm, scavenging the islands on Dec. 16 with wind and gusts of up to 168 mph, is said to have killed 397 people. 500,000 are homeless and are either still sheltered in evacuation centers or with friends and relatives. It’s not a cheerful start to the new year, especially since we’ve been through so much in the past twelve months, but it’s an event that needs to be shared, that needs the attention and care of everyone who is reading this. I talked to me co-worker about this the other day, and he had no idea that this happened.
The Philippines lie in the typhoon belt - an area in the Pacific Ocean in South East Asia - meaning this country is one of the most vulnerable nations to the climate crisis, where the Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons a year. Typhoon Rai, or what the local Pinoys call “Odette”, is the fifteenth typhoon of 2021 and makes it one of the deadliest. It triggered Filipinos as this disaster reminisced Typhoon Haiyan - the most dangerous storm to have hit the land in South East Asia and that killed over 6,300 people.
Resources
There are people who celebrated Christmas on the streets, in their run-down houses that were once their homes, or standing hours in a line to receive the scarce commodity that’s gasoline. If you wish to help and give back this New Years, here are a list of resources you can look into:
Lokal Lab (here’s a transparency report to know that you’re money is going to the right places)
1-888-407-4747 — the number of the US Department Office of Overseas Citizens Services and Crisis Management in case you’re looking for a US citizen in the Philippines
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/world/asia/philippines-super-typhoon-rai.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/18/philippines-typhoon-rai-odette/