Typhoon Haiyan 2013 Evacuation Preparations and Awareness

Category 5 Typhoon Haiyan (known as Yolanda in the Philippines) made landfall in the Philippines on the 8 th November 2013 at almost the peak of its power, devastating the islands of Leyte and Samar, amongst other places. The present paper analyses the degree of awareness and preparedness of the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines against storm surges prior to the arrival of typhoon Haiyan. The analysis was based on field surveys and interviewed with a variety of local residents and officials conducted during field surveys in the months after the event. One of the key problems identified during the interviews was how people were not able to clearly conceptualize the concept of storm surge. Despite receiving storm surge warnings it appears that many residents and local authorities “under-estimated” the event and thought that they could evacuate at a later stage or during the storm itself. The results clearly highlight the need for better education and for development strategies in the region to focus on improving the resilience of local inhabitants.