Video transcript

advertisement

In the typhoon's wake.....

Guiuan. Eastern Philippines.

Typhoon Yolanda strikes land.

Wind speeds reach a record 195 miles per hour...

..gusting to more than 230...

..as the devastating storm rips across the central Philippines.

In the eastern province of Leyte, the port of Tacloban is swamped by the storm surge.

Thousands are feared dead.

Two days on,

Shell's Head of Security, Rey Peña, is sent to the devastated city.

There are a lot of bodies around, along this road.

It's difficult to see that people are hungry, looking for food.

Electricity supply to this city of a quarter of a million people is down.

Food and fresh water are scarce.

People urgently need fuel for transport and to power generators, for water purification and cooking.

Rey Peña's mission is to find a viable service station and get vital fuel flowing again.

This is retail station on my left side.

It's totally damaged.

Each station he visits has been virtually destroyed.

Eventually his search pays off.

This is the first site I realised was in good condition.

I immediately asked for support from the police and the military to secure this site, because, as you all know, there was a lot of looting going on that day.

We managed to power up this generator while we were securing this site.

After just 48 hours on the ground,

Peña, with help from the military, gets the first station up and running.

At Shell's Philippines HQ,

Sebastian Quiniones informs the authorities.

We now have a retail station that's available.

We are offering you free fuel as part of our contribution to the effort in recovery.

People are soon queuing at the pumps to take Shell up on their offer.

We initially said 10,000 litres because that was what the military requested.

But then we already knew that would probably be used up quite quickly.

Demand for fuel increases

when Rey Peña opens a second station eight days later.

I believe at the last count, it was over 50,000 litres of fuel that were coming out of the two retail stations.

But Shell is able to contribute more than free fuel.

Puerto Princesa, in the western province of Palawan, is unaffected by the typhoon.

Here Marvi Trudeau runs the Pilipinas Shell Foundation.

It's the company's social arm in the Philippines.

I put together what requirements there are and figure out what Shell can provide.

Marvi's team identify a remote island in desperate need of relief.

Up to now, there's no power.

Communication is really difficult.

She needs a boat to transport the aid to Coron.

Shell covers the cost of the boat.

The race is on to load it.

We have two and a half days because the boat is sailing first thing on Saturday.

So everybody now is busy loading.

What's inside each bag?

Is this enough for one family?

They pack five kilos of rice, some sardines, some other foodstuffs.

It's good for one family for three or four days.

Ten containers are loaded, bound for Coron.

A ten-hour journey by sea.

85% of the town's homes and businesses were destroyed by Yolanda.

In the wake of the killer storm, the Malampaya Foundation, which is partly funded by Shell, is directing relief at Coron's remote coastal villages.

Many of them lost their homes and their boats, their main source of livelihood, their crops.

Our main intention is really to find those people and help them rebuild their lives and their means of livelihood.

The operation to deliver thousands of aid bags is logistically fraught, as the area is made up of nearly 60 tiny islands.

Belina Macuha takes charge of the aid hand out.

We can have our assembly here.

Some have walked across mountains barefoot to receive their aid bags.

They've been without sufficient food for days.

Houses, boats. I said to myself, "What are we going to do?

"How are we supposed to survive?"

First of all, we are grateful. At least we are getting some food.

But it's more than food aid that the villagers need.

There were lots. More than a thousand in Barangay.

Almost 100% lost their income.

The community's fishing fleet has been decimated and most homes seriously damaged.

These are the houses damaged by typhoon Yolanda.

The Malampaya Foundation provides a temporary solution to the lack of shelter.

What are you going to tie that with?

We selected a high quality tarpaulin so that, in the event they are able to put up their permanent roofing, they can use these tarps for their boats.

Just close the gap and move it a little bit more and then that will do.

Four weeks on from the disaster, the death toll is over five and a half thousand.

More than 1,800 are missing.

Over five million are still without shelter.

It's quite heart-breaking to be honest.

I wish I could do things right there and then for them.

We're now working with groups who are building houses and communities to see where best we could build these new houses to allow the people to stand back up and have dignity again.

Incredibly, the areas devastated by the worst typhoon on record are now showing their first faltering steps towards recovery.

Filipinos have a term, which is that together we can survive whatever crisis or situation is there as long as we work together.

Download