The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) commemorated the ninth anniversary of Super Typhoon (ST) “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) on Tuesday, Nov. 8, the most powerful storm to make landfall in the recorded history of the Philippines.
Senior Undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr., chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and officer-in-charge (OIC) of the Department of National Defense (DND), accompanied President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a wreath-laying ceremony and blessing of the Yolanda Memorial Mass Grave at the Holy Cross Memorial Garden in Tacloban City, Leyte in honor of those who died during the onslaught of Yolanda nine years ago.
In a statement, the OCD expressed solidarity with the people of Eastern Visayas (Region 8) in commemorating the anniversary of Yolanda which struck early morning of Nov. 8, 2013.
“This day, let us remember and honor our dearly departed and the memories they have inculcated in our hearts and minds,” the OCD in Eastern Visayas (OCD-8) said.
The OCD-8 said that Filipinos should also “remember the life-changing lesson that this fateful event has taught us: be better and more resilient Filipinos.”
“Yolanda may have wrecked the region but it will never break our spirits,” the OCD-8 added.
ST Yolanda made its first landfall over Guiuan, Eastern Samar at 4:40 a.m. of Nov. 8, 2013 – a time when many residents were still sleeping. For the entire day, Yolanda had made six landfalls over Leyte, Cebu, Iloilo, and Palawan before it exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) around 3:30 p.m. of Nov. 9, 2013.
Yolanda left 6,300 individuals dead, 28,688 injured, and 1,062 others missing, according to the NDRRMC’s final report on ST Yolanda. Of those who perished, a total of 5,902 individuals died in Region 8.
A total of 16,078,181 individuals were also affected by the typhoon.
ST Yolanda was regarded by the NDRRMC as the worst typhoon to ever hit the country, and is ranked No. 1 among the Top 10 worst typhoons in terms of damage to properties which amounted to P93 billion – including infrastructure, productive, social, and cross-sectoral loss.