16 February 2014 – The United Nations and its partners in the Philippines are warning today that millions of people still require urgent assistance to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, 100 days after Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, cut a swath of devastation across the archipelago.
“The authorities, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, and the Filipino people should be commended for the pace of progress that we have seen in the first 100 days. But we cannot afford to be complacent,” said Luiza Carvalho, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Philippines.
In a news release hailing the marked progress in the massive Government-led relief operation since the storm swept ashore on 8 November killing nearly 6,000 people and displacing 4.1 million at the height of the emergency, Ms. Carvalho noted that in the days, weeks and first months that followed, in support of the Government, the UN and partners helped provide food, medicine, water and sanitation and hygiene assistance.
“We distributed tents and tarpaulins so that 500,000 families would have some form of a roof over their heads and implemented emergency employment programmes that helped them get back on their feet and pumped money into local economies,” she said, adding that while ensuring that farmers were able to go back to their fields in time to plant, the UN and partners also helped remove more than 500,000 cubic metres of debris from hard-hit Tacloban alone.
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