Coming Home!

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Perhaps proves that I'm not really cut out to be a blogger. If only the narration in my head could somehow be captured....haha.

After Thanksgiving, things got very busy for Steve in Roxas, Philippines. We actually didn't hear from him much at all the first week or two of December.  It sounded like they got a lot busier because transport channels and supply chains were beginning to get sorted out and supplies were arriving every few hours from very early in the morning until the evening. He was quite understaffed as well, though later he told me they'd hired a bunch more people. He also said that their HQ was regularly moving people around on them, to fill critical staffing gaps, making it harder for him to plan and train up people. 

In the last week, we've heard from him more, and even video skyped with him last weekend, and Griffin was able to see him and talk to him.  Living conditions were still pretty hard- no air conditioning but blazing hot and humid weather, no hot water, food options were pretty limited also, and he'd run out of multivitamins. Sounded like stress was pretty extreme too- everyone was starting to get burnt out and he said tensions were rising. Also, many of the Filipino transporters were starting to get wise to the NGO system and were not showing up to honor their contracts if they got a higher offer, thereby not transporting goods to a waiting community.

Yesterday, he finally finished up in Roxas and flew up to Manila, where he's working out of the office there and planning his handover and doing debriefs. He's staying with old friends of ours from Sri Lanka, Marianne and Will, and catching up with another old friend from Sri Lanka, Gianni.  Small world, these disasters are!

And with that, he comes home Thursday evening! Couldn't be soon enough!

Happy holidays!

Christie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Steve is still a busy little beaver in Roxas, but he took a few minutes to video tape a short clip for Griffin and emailed it to us. It was cute! Though Griffin kept trying to talk to it. We sent a few video clips to him as well. He called for a few minutes but the line wasn't very clear, plus Griffin was a little grouchy and didn't want to talk to him. Sometimes he does that when Steve's been away a while. Poor Steve, he was by himself and just had a boring old regular dinner, though I was very thankful that at least he was safe!

Weekend Update

I've barely heard from Steve in days. I finally exchanged with him a bit on Skype chat yesterday and he called quickly today to say hi to Griffin. He said they are crazy busy, all kinds of supplies coming in and other activities, plus the staffing situation with his team has been pretty fluid, people getting moved to this location or that, to fill gaps, but without much notice. So he's lost some team members, and then gained others, all in all making it tough to plan and get a groove. They've also had some high profile visits, both external and internal, which takes time as well.

The good news is that at this point, he's guessing he'll be on track to come home on his original return ticket, which is for December 15th. It'll be so nice to have him home for a bit of time before the holidays. If nothing else but to be with Griffin so I can shop kid-free....haha! But also because he missed most all of November and December last year, leading up the Hurricane Sandy response.

As for us, we've passed week 2 with mixed results. Some days Griffin is a charm, very helpful and sweet, and I really enjoy spending time with him. I'm trying hard to actually do things with him, instead of just the usual bustle where you sort of flow through life and to-do items, kid trailing along. That's easier w two parents bc one can be having quality time while the other is running errands, folding laundry, getting dinner, insert 100 more things here. I think he needs the extra attention with Steve gone, because there is a real effect on him, but it's not really expressed yet. I've just started to sense it better I think. 

The flip side is that he can really act out too, which is usual terrible threes but amplified, bc of the situation. It can bring a mom to her knees!! But I'm getting better at handling that nuclear stage than I used to be, too. Of course, life wouldn't be crazy enough unless you threw the dog in there- poor Bentley is reacting like I've never seen- he's shredding everything in sight if left out when we're gone!! A large basket, blinds, curtains, shades, throw pillow, newspaper- all shredded, from a couple different days of him being home alone. So I lugged his travel crate up from the basement and he's hanging in there now. Frankly I sort of think he likes it- he goes in a lot on his own. The dog has serious anxiety issues. Poor guy! 

We're thankful to have such a great community of friends and neighbors here, they all keep asking what they can do to help. I keep saying, ask me in a week or two (once I start to really lose it!). Also nice to know in case something really happens- Griffin flirted with a stomach bug this weekend that ended up not really being anything, but I panicked at the idea of the full-on scenario! Luckily I was kept sane knowing I have good people nearby to lean on. Here's to that!!

I leave you with a cute video clip Griffin made for Steve, of a new song he learned in school!

Washing Socks

If you don't follow Steve on Facebook or missed his post today, here it is.  Funny thing is that I've never seen him wear socks in the tropics in my life! :)

Gotta go wash my socks!! Day 7 in Philippines, and the power is still out!! Clean clothes are running low, but moral is high! Not a single place in the city will wash my clothes, so its up to me! I bought a bucket, some laundry powder. The meetings are finished, its 11:45PM. The next flight does not land for 6 hours. Time to wash some socks!!

Making Stuff Happen...

Steve just sent me this Save the Children blog post, written by one of their media guys, about him. I love it! 

When it comes to aid workers responding to mass disasters like Typhoon Haiyan, there isn’t much sexy about being the logistics guy.

But when you need to get stuff done, he makes it happen.

Seasoned aid worker Steve Wells manages the vital role in Save the Children’s rapid response team, which arrived in Roxas on the island of Panay, one of the worst affected areas in the Philippines.

Steve sourced vehicles for our assessment of the northeast coastline, organized a makeshift office with wifi in a town with no power, and arranged for plane after plane of aid to come to the island.

He booked trucks and recruited staff for the distribution, planning every intricate detail of its critical delivery.

“It’s all well and good to have funds to provide relief in emergencies, but if you can’t make those donations work in the local climate there’s no point,” he said.

“For me, when I come to scene of devastation like the one we found in Panay, it’s about making connections with the people who can help you out. They are incredible assets when you aren’t familiar with a particular place.

“We also want to source as much of our materials and products locally to support the local economy and get more bang for our buck, while making sure not to create a false economy.”

Steve works late into the night at the humanitarian coordination center he helped set up in the provincial office building, collaborating with other organizations about leveraging resources or lending advice.

More often than not however, they are looking to him for guidance.

Steve’s been in the ‘logs’ business for almost a decade, having been deployed all over the world including to Sri Lanka for the tsunami and civil war, Pakistan for floods and Mali for famine.

Here in Panay he’s the one that gets stuff done.

“Sourcing and distributing emergency kits in a disaster like this one is a complicated process and there are a lot of people involved,” he said.

“Here in Panay, once we set up our base, we’ve been able to transport aid into the island from various parts of the Philippines, find a warehouse to store the kits and recruit volunteers and staff to help with mass distributions.

“It’s all about making sure we provide the aid as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible to meet the needs of thousands of vulnerable families.”

Tuesday Nov 19th

I've barely heard from Steve in the last day or two. Their pipeline of supplies has finally started flowing better- they'd had to play second fiddle to needs in Tacloban. I'm not sure why, but all the sudden they started getting a lot of supplies on flights, so he was crazy busy at the airport handling everything. He said now they're getting WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) kits, plus child friendly spaces kits. They have some people living out of temporary shelters because they lived on tiny islands off the coast of the large island that Roxas is on, and there is nothing for them to go back to. So they'll start setting up child friendly spaces for the kids. 

As I was talking to him he said he had to go, a C130 was headed from Cebu with supplies- it stopped there and was headed to Roxas. Then he cursed bc he got a call that their supplies didn't make it on that flight, and the next one wasn't until 2pm (it was the morning there, at the time). 

He said that yesterday he participated when they did a distribution of supplies to a community of 350 households in Estencia, Iloilio. He said they were so nice, so appreciative! After I filled him in on a few things that Griffin had been up to, he said he had to go, he needed to go buy a printer and a megaphone. "A megaphone?" I asked. "Surely not for you, songmeister!" He said, "hell no! Not me!!  The timid little Philippino guy who did the presentation of what was in the kits.  It was so cute, he pulled everything out of the bag one by one, and presented it like wheel of fortune prizes and all the beneficiaries applauded!!  It was awesome!!" 

Steve's Office

I don't have much new to report yet, other than these two photos that Steve sent of his "office" in Roxas. He said it's a whole bunch of agencies working out of a government conference room. I've been seeing him on skype most every day, but often we do a short exchange and then the internet cuts, or he gets pulled into something, so I don't hear too much. Plus he always asks about Griffin and I.

Photos from the Field

I haven't heard from Steve very much the last two days. He tried to Skype us yesterday evening (his morning) but we weren't home Friday evening. Just now (Saturday night, his Sunday morning) I've caught him on Skype chat, but he's still not giving me that many details. Hmmm guess he must be busy! He did upload a bunch of photos to facebook, so I've posted a few here. He's had internet a good part of the day, but the bandwidth is pretty weak, and it cuts out often. Some of the photos below show them unloading some household kids off a flight, for a distribution. The kits contain plastic sheeting, kitchen kits, blankets, mosquito nets, torch (I think he means flashlight but it could be a lantern). It was supposed to arrive on a flight yesterday and he waited on the tarmac for hours until finally reaching the guy in Manila, who still hadn't managed to get it on a plane at all. The shipment finally arrived early this morning (their time) but contained only a fraction of the kits they were expecting, which is a problem since the local mayor was organizing a distribution for 1000 when only 150 arrived. He said its incredibly frustrating because space on planes is so incredibly limited, and right now so many of the flights are going to Tacloban, which is getting priority. So they often don't have control over what does or doesn't make it on the plane.  But he said they should have several more coming today and tomorrow, and a whole 20ft container arriving by sea on a ferry on Wednesday or Thursday. He said that every agency working in Roxas (by the way he's in Roxas city, Capiz province, Palay Island) meets together at 6pm every night, for a coordination meeting managed by OCHA (United Nations Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance, or something like that- they are always the coordinating body of all the aid agencies, in a major disaster like this). Then they break up into clusters and divide up and organize who does what, where, and share information on what they've found and learned. You'll see in some of the photos Steve's fancy new backpack- he actually got that about a month ago as part of a pilot, it has solar panels on the back and can power a 60w battery, which can connect to just about anything- a car charger plug and a USB plug, among other things.  He has been working out of the governor's office but he said just got a local dongle (apparently this is what you call a think that connects to your laptop and picks up a cell signal and creates a wireless network) which will allow him to make a wireless hub via the local mobile network, right from his computer. He said office coordination and administration is super challenging, in addition to relief supply logistics. He's super happy though, because he just hired a new logistics assistant who comes from the area, and starts working with him tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Draft Media Blog Posts

This morning Steve sent me a couple draft blog posts that he wrote with their media officer, and a few photos. Thought I'd share. I don't think these have been published to date, and I'm not sure what the ultimate plans are for these write ups.

BLOG #1

Chasing a typhoon seems a strange and somewhat insensitive thing to do, especially a Category 5 nightmare which packed winds of more than 300km/h. But as a Operations Officer with Save the Children this is simply what you do in times of crisis.

I was on a flight to Manila within hours of the call to deploy, before eventually making it to Roxas, in the province of Capiz on the island of Palay in the central Philippines – 2 days and after leaving the states, and my lovely wife and sweet 3 year old boy.

On arrival, the scene was one of serious destruction. Trees had been uprooted from the ground, buildings brought down to nothing but a pile of rubble, and power lines snapped in half. Barely a bamboo building remained upstanding.  The capital city of Roxas city has no power, no communications and contaminated water, and this is the best it gets in the area.

The rice paddies, rolling hills and crystal clear waters provided a bizarre backdrop to the destruction

The scene was one of utter and complete devastation, as families tried to reconcile with what happened and what had become of their lives. The tragedy was everywhere.

People told of losing loved ones. Those from neighboring islands to the east said barely a home was spared.

With power out, life has been made even harder.

I took part in Save the Children’s rapid assessment team going into Iloilo to determine what the needs of the communities were, which areas were worst affected and what support was already being provided.

In Pilar, the local school had been turned into an evacuation centre for residents from the nearby island of Sitio Cantel. Five-hundred people from the island took shelter there when the storm struck. Two men who stayed behind died.

To make matters worse, the rainfall has been heavy across the Philippines, with more wet weather to come. This means families, and especially children, are more prone to illness, not to mention making the rebuilding process even more difficult.

While the world’s media has rightly descended on Tacloban, Iloilo remains an island in desperate need of help.

Key figures as of 14/11/13 for Capiz

AFFECTED FAMILIES

139,564 families

688,120 people

Source: municipal DRR, etc.

DAMAGED HOUSES

96,538 totally damaged houses

20,868

CASUALITIES

50 dead

BLOG #2

The waterfront at Estancia will forever be seared into my memory as one of the most haunting sites I’ve ever seen.

The storm surge caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan obliterated the homes and shops that once stood overlooking the picturesque Visayas, leaving nothing but huge mounds of ruble.

Palm trees were uprooted, concrete power poles snapped in half and boats smashed to pieces.

As I walked through the remnants of the once lively community, locals were desperate to tell their stories.

Many had underestimated or not been informed of the sheer force Haiyan would bring, thinking their homes and the sea wall would hold it off.

Some escaped neck deep in water, as rain and deadly winds lashed down on them.

Several described the storm surge as tsunami like.

85 people died in Estancia that night, including many fishermen who lived on nearby islands.

Tragically, not only have people lost their homes but also their livelihoods. With hundreds of fishing boats destroyed, the main industry and a major source of food is in peril.

Now almost a week after the typhoon struck, attention is firmly focused on the long recovery process ahead.

Among the challenges is restoring electricity, gaining access to uncontaminated water supplies, providing shelter and returning livelihoods.

One important factor in the recovery process is ensuring that when homes, shops and local infrastructure are rebuilt, they are designed to better withstand the next typhoon. Haiyan should serve not just as a tragedy, but a lesson for the future.

Today we are awaiting Save the Children plane load of shelter kits and tarpaulins, which is due to arrive in the islands capital Roxas. This is a critical early step in what will no doubt be a lengthy response.

Melting in Roxas, Philippines

Before I get to the good stuff, about what Steve's doing, I'm going to take a moment to do my own public service announcement. Wonderful for everyone supporting the Typhoon Haiyan response! It's a good thing in the world when people everywhere step up to help other humans in difficult times, no matter who they are. So, DONATE CASH. DO NOT COLLECT AND SEND STUFF. Enough said. If you need the footnotes as to why, let me know.

I had a chance to skype a little bit with Steve earlier today.  He is with a team of 6 people from Save the Children International, and they're setting up a logistics center in Roxas, which is one of the top three hardest hit areas, as I understand it. They were able to find a few rooms to rent, but they are sleeping 4 to a room, with 2 beds. They were able to get extra cots in the room, though he said the word "cot" is a stretch. But it's better than sleeping in a tent outside, which is what they expected and went equipped to do. (they went equipped to work on the moon, if they had to!).  There are a whole bunch of them working out of the conference room at the governor's office, and they're running a generator just for enough electricity to charge phones, use their laptops, and have intermittent internet, to do their work. He said there's no AC and it's hotter than hell, inside and out. He said they're trying to figure out how to receive a bunch of containers of relief supplies which are on their way there- where to get it, how to clear it with the government, how to move the supplies out and get them distributed, etc. One thing he did say is that the governor there is very well organized, and Steve was impressed. "Best I have ever seen!" he says. And that's saying a lot because Steve is a tough critic, especially in times like this. So that at least bodes well. He also said that the government did a pretty good job of advance evacuation, so that helped the situation. Which to me is incredible to think of how infinitely more horrible it would have been otherwise!

He also commented that there are so many little islands, and that's a problem- getting to them all, identifying what the situation is, and what the needs are. He said they're still finding areas that haven't been supported at all yet. I asked him about the violence I'm hearing about in the news and he said that it's mainly in Tacloban city itself, and the government just shut down access to anyone who's not already working there, because so many aid agencies were going there and the infrastructure couldn't support it. So now they're seeing more and more agencies arriving where he is. They haven't had any security problems where he is, luckily.  Coordination isn't bad, he said, but information is just hard to verify.  He also seems to have a cell phone connection, because he texted me once or twice (to remind me to cancel his doctor's appointment, of all things!) but I think it's very expensive.

From our side, LWR is buzzing like crazy with our own response. My role here is related to program design and evaluation mostly, so I'm not directly involved with the response. It's a little hard for me, after 5 years of blood, sweat and tears with the tsunami program, but I remind myself that my job is to go where I'm needed, and for right now, that's keeping it together at home, with Griffin, so that Steve can do his work in the Philippines. But soon I'll start working some with LWR's response, as we begin to look at really focusing in on the longer term strategy for our work, and what measures of success we want to set up, to ensure we're really having the impact we intend to. Today I went back through many documents from my time at the American Red Cross, when I was part of the 2004 Tsunami Recovery Team. We had a lot of lessons learned from that operation about a well-designed, long-term strategy with a good accountability framework behind it. It does make a big difference to stop and take the time to think these kinds of things through. After immediate needs have been met, of course. 

That's all for now, this disaster single mama is headed to bed. I hope to have a few more notes from him in the morning, and when there's a lull I can tell you more about how we're doing.  I'll leave you with a photo of Griffin getting his haircut today. I suppose I should post more stuff like this for Steve, as this is probably a good and easy way for him to keep up with news and information about Griffin, too!

The Philippines and Typhoon Haiyan

Well....it's been quite some time since I've blogged on this site, almost a year in fact. I guess it falls along the line of doing a baby book, you keep up with it a lot when kids are little babies and then life sort of takes over. In any case, I've been getting so many questions about how Steve's doing, I thought I'd write it up, to make it easier to share. 

As most of you know, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on Friday, Nov 8th, and based on the meteorological reports of the storm, and early assessments of the damage, it appears that it will rank in history as one of the largest storms ever, certainly for the Philippines. The organization I work for, LWR, is posting situation reports pretty much daily here: http://lwr.org/ourwork/emergencies/haiyan  and Steve's organization, Save the Children, is doing the same. http://bit.ly/19ODlfy.   

By Sunday, Steve was on a plane to the Philippines. He works for Save the Children US, and was allocated to join an advance logistics team with Save the Children International, so he's working with teams from all over the world.  Philippines is 13 hours ahead of the US East coast, so he arrived late Monday our time, mid-day Tuesday there time.  His flight to Manila arrived late, so he missed the connection to Cebu, and ended up working out of Save's office in Manila for the rest of the day. At that point, they decided he should instead go with a team to Roxas, (see map here: http://goo.gl/maps/fr7dF ) where he went yesterday.  He called me briefly from the airport in Manila before his flight to Roxas City.  I got a text from an old colleague, Gianni, who worked with us after the 2004 tsunami and is a close friend, and is retired now in the Philippines with is wife. (they were fine in the storm, not located in the main area). Gianni said that Roxas is the main city near Borocay Island, which is a very famous and amazing vacation spot. I checked the map and it is indeed in the same province, but not exactly next door. My fear is that what it also means is a high potential for tourist casualties, because it looks pretty remote and exposed. Time will tell. 

I heard from Steve again late last night via skype chat, and again briefly this morning. He's arrived in Roxas City and is working with a small team of 6 there, trying to get set up and get supplies in to the area. I'll post more later, have to get back to work!