Disaster Profile

The Philippines is one of the most typhoon-impacted countries globally, with about 20 tropical cyclones traversing the country’s area of responsibility each year. 

Typhoons, also known as tropical cyclones and hurricanes, are among the deadliest disasters in the world.

Super Typhoon Rai, locally known as Odette, made landfall on December 16th, 2021, bringing torrential rains, violent winds, floods, and storm surges to the Visayas and Mindanao Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 195km/hr and gustiness of 260km/h. Nearly 1.7 million houses were damaged or destroyed, and massive damage to infrastructure, agricultural land, and fishing communities across a vast geographic area of the country.

An estimated 9.9 million people across the 6 worst hit regions were severely affected, leaving about 2.4 million people in need of assistance and 408 fatalities.

Southern Leyte, where our program is located, was one of the worst-affected provinces. Out of 528 schools in Southern Leyte, 312 were impacted by Odette. From these 312 schools, there are 522 destroyed classrooms and 1,673 classrooms with major damage.