Team Canada Completes Yolanda Relief Mission

The Government of Canada announced last week that the Canadian Disaster Assistance Response Team has completed its mission in the Philippines. Canadian Forces personnel departed the Philippines on December 20 just in time to rejoin their families for Christmas.

canada typhoon yolanda
Image Source: Canadian Armed Forces Combat Camera
Canada was the fourth largest donor to the Philippines after the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia contributing more than $20 million in aid money. Canadians were applauded for dispatching the Disaster Assistance Response Team to the north end of Panay Island while other nations focused efforts on Tacloban and the surrounding region. Canadians were also praised for dispatching transport aircraft with troops to stand by in Hawaii before the location of the Canadian mission was determined as it saved a crucial number of days in getting the Philippine relief operation up and running in a region that lacked electricity, food, and drinking water while thousands remained homeless.

canada typhoon yolanda
Image Source: Canadian Armed Forces
Although Tacloban was nearly obliterated by Typhoon Yolanda, the United States and Philippine militaries were already established and running the operations there. Only limited opportunities existed to land aircraft on the Tacloban runway with relief supplies. Therefore, it only made sense for countries with limited capabilities to fill any gaps that existed in Tacloban. As the Canadian DART is capable of a much more formidable presence than the delivery of relief goods, the Philippine government invited the team to help in the north end of Panay where badly needed assistance could begin immediately as it made no sense for Canada to attempt to duplicate the heavy American presence in Leyte and Samar. 

While the level of destruction in northern Panay was less than in Tacloban, the impoverished region was still left in a terrible mess. The force of the winds that swept through the region exceeded that of Hurricane Katrina. Several isolated inland communities had no contact with the outside world while smaller islands a few kilometres from Roxas were completely shattered by the cyclone. Most of the islands had not received a scrap of help from any country including their own until the arrival of Canada's helicopters.

canada typhoon yolanda
Image Source: Canadian Armed Forces
Scouts from Britain and the Australian military praised the Canadian contingent for the meaningful role they had discovered in Panay while military forces from other nations were assimilated into the massive US presence in Tacloban. In addition, the United Nations Coordination Office for Panay was relieved by the amount of supplies and equipment that the Canadian forces brought that resulted in a number of international aid agencies establishing bases in Roxas. Prior to the arrival of the Canadian DART, only a handful of aid agencies had arrived in Roxas. The number quickly accelerated to nearly 25 aid agencies with the arrival of the Canadian Forces as their presence made logistics easier for everyone.

Canada provided $35 million in humanitarian assistance for shelter, safe water, food, educational assistance, and counselling for disaster victims. The Canadian government matched dollar for dollar all contributions made by Canadians to the relief efforts including the extensive number of donations from the Filipino-Canadian community that totals nearly 800,000 people. In addition, the government funded the deployment of the Canadian Red Cross field hospital to Ormoc, which assisted local hospitals that had suffered damage during the typhoon. The field hospital was able to provide basic health and surgical care, as well as maternal and child care. Canadian doctors delivered a number of newborn babies in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. The Canadian Medical Assistance Team was also on the ground simultaneously in Ormoc offering out-patient medical services for those that had been affected by the disaster. 


Humanitarian reserves deployed by the Canadian government from Canada's emergency stockpile included 16,000 blankets, 1.3 million water purification tablets, 3,000 tents, and 5,000 temporary shelters. These supplies assisted nearly 5,000 families. On the island of Panay, more than 300 members of the Canadian Disaster Assistance Response Team were deployed to Roxas City. During their mission, more than 113 kilometers of road was cleared, generators for hospitals were restored, and municipal infrastructure was repaired.

canada typhoon yolanda
Image Source: Canadian Armed Forces
The Canadian Forces mobile medical teams travelled by helicopter into isolated communities in Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan provinces, treating more than 3,000 patients. The water purification teams distributed more than 20,000 litres of potable water while DART helicopters distributed nearly 100 tons of food and relief supplies into remote island and mountain communities. Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also participated in an Interpol mission to help assess the needs of the Philippine authorities for disaster victim identification services. The Canadian government also deployed an epidemiologist to Manila as part of the Global Outbreak Alert Response Network to assist the World Health Organization response team. 

As the Philippines is an important source of new immigrants to Canada, special measures were also implemented to expedite processing of permanent and temporary residence applications from regions affected by the typhoon. In total, 23 countries came to the aid of the Philippines providing relief and civil military assets for emergency relief operations in response to Typhoon Yolanda. According to the Civil Military coordination hub in Tacloban, this was the largest humanitarian response ever sent to a single country. 





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