Thirteen-million people affected. Four-million displaced. Thousands of refugee camps. More than four thousand fatalities. One typhoon. In the wake of the devastation left by a tropical storm turned typhoon that battered the Philippines and parts of Vietnam and China, relief organisations and volunteers have flooded into south-east Asia to help the survivors and start rebuilding.
As more journalists and volunteers have begun moving into some of the worst hit regions of the Philippines, they’ve taken out their smartphones to document the scenes, posting them on Instagram using hashtags like #YolandaPH (Haiyan is known locally as Typhoon Yolanda), #haiyan, #typhoonyolanda and #typhoonhaiyan. The photos document the aftermath of the natural disaster, as well as the ongoing relief efforts, from the midst of the debris and devastation. There’s even a video captured of the storm itself.
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CNN journalist Jethro Mullen captured this shot of the flattened buildings that once stood tall in Tacloban, one of the Philippines’ worst hit towns. As he notes in the caption, the area is receiving a lot of focus in relief efforts, with UNICEF trucking and airlifting in water and sanitation supplies after the one of the city’s damaged water treatment works facilities recently returning to full operation capacity.
In this shot, Mullen shows the level of debris still obscuring the ground, and the remnants of a playground in Tacloban where children once played.
Mullen says right after he captured this image of a boy climbing on rubble in Tacloban, the child “struck a great little kung fu pose. Unfortunately, I was too slow to capture it.”
Hong Kong cameraman Brad Olson captured this shot shortly after the typhoon hit the city, after surviving the brunt of the storm with the CNN crew, but being unable to file any report on it for two days after the telecoms infrastructure in Tacloban was damaged.
Olson also managed to record a short video clip depicting the strength and sound of the storm from behind a window.
This photo by News5 Manilla journalist DJ Sta Ana shows the lonely bathroom which was once attached to a house near Tacloban City’s Romualdez Airport.
Real Street, which runs along near the coast of Tacloban City’s Cancabato Bay, wasn’t navigable by car as rubble piled up in the road.
Journalist Jeff Canoy captured this shot of a signboard painter, who has used his skills to create messages of hope for the residents of Tacloban City.
