Tacloban returning to some kind of normality?

Just came back on sunday after a week in the province. Feel your pain about the insurance and your house Rob. Just have to keep on at them without shouting at them, if possible!! haha.

Heres how I see in Tacloban now:
Airport: To small and difficult to get to, They where promising for years to expand it but it never came to anything. They are doing some work to it still but generally its still a dump. They are STILL repairing a hole in the end of the runway so its only small planes that can get in or out. This will hopefully be sorted this time next month. In all honesty I think a new airport is a good idea. The present one is to exposed (they've not improved or repaired the sea defences), There is no redundancy at the airport facilties wise and worst still they've redone the male toilets so the ladies get a full view as your using the urinal!!! lol.

Aid: I was informed by DEC that no aid money is handed to the government. There seems to be a lot of aid agency SUV's there but I'm unsure what exactly they are doing. There is still a lot of people living under the emergency tarps they originally gave out and a lot of shanty huts lining the roads in certain parts. They have built some housing, mainly wood (which is ok as a temp measure) and a very small number of concrete houses. Our carpenter told us this time that he was offered work by some yanks on the southern end od Samar to build, wait for it, 30 houses.

They seem to be rebuilding a few bridges and taking the opportunity to widen some roads that I'm not sure require it. A lot of building / construction materal is in the same place we saw it 2 months ago.

As I see it, the government is doing very little at all levels, the charities are there but working very slowly for what ever reason. On the plus side 2 months ago they painted the San Juinico bridge so that looks very nice now! Got their priorities right!!

Town: Macdonalds has opened again, WOOHOO. Still looks like a 10m wall of water washed through it but as I've mentioned in the past the churches, petrol stations and car dealerships look as if nothing has happened. Go figure.

Conclusion: The government has done dick, the aid agencies appear to be doing something but I'm not sure what but its happening slowly. They do need a new, better airport. The local people are amazing with what they've had to and still have to endure all day every day. Its 12 months since the typhoon and its going to take a long long time before any noticeable improvements are made for the people and not just for big business, which is obviously needed to provide income and jobs etc but things should be equalled out more.

Obviously these ramblings are my own thoughts

Strange thing is in the province about 30-45 min drive from tacloban its like nothing has happened. Life returned to normall pretty quick and as long as the house withstood the typhoon then it was situation normal which is a good thing because little aid went north over the bridge. Obviously it had to go to the east side first as the was so badly hit by the storm surge.

Also interesting to note that a lot of people are ignoring the 14m minimum from shoreline for building their houses. Saw on TV the other night someone (a Filipino) stated it was pointless anyway because its more to do with elevation than distance from the shore. Smart cookie, someone should employ that man

Maybe but I think there is a general level of ineptitude and greed at work regardless. Don't forget there are a lot of other areas that where affect by this and the Bohol earthquake before, don't hear an awful lot from those areas.

In Tacloban airport "departure" lounge they play a video on endless loop about all the success they've had helping people. One made me smile for all the wrong reasons. It shows a man and his son who have lost EVERYTHING but the charity put him on the video because they gave him a solar power lantern!!! Now our work here is done.

Its good to hear what it is really like after the disaster, news reports are seldom accurate.

My problem is they seem to be going round patting themselves on the back. I know there is a lot to do and its a hellish job but its a year on and not a lot seems to have changed to my fairly untrained eye. Granted if we where there more and actually in town more I may see a bigger difference

From what I've seen on the news there is just a big deal being made of the fact that the Mc Donald's has reopened, what about the Jollibee?

There must be a massive amount of work left to do to get the place back to what it was.

And Mr Donut.

How many minutes cross training are required to burn off a breakfast of three chocolate creme Bavarian donuts and a black coffee?

Don't you have a app for that?

The answer to your question is a lot of minutes, maybe two hours? donuts are very high in calories.

Honestly don't think Jolibee closed at all!! Which is a pity because I think they are disgusting . I think they are making a big deal of mcdonalds because it right on the water front and is a fairly major landmark in Tacloban. To be honest I think we've been it twice, there was a few unfriendly looking foreigners in there. We eat in Chowking now.

I think in general they're doing enough work to get everything up and running and leaving it that, no more certainly