Typhoon Haiyan and Reporting

It is topical that we consider “Big Truck That Went By” in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. There are significant similarities that we can draw between the Typhoon Haiyan and the Haiti earthquake in terms of the deliverance of promises of aid, and expectations of what can be anticipated after disasters. I will look at how the press coverage has responded to the disaster, and how their coverage explicitly links to Katz's argument in “Big Truck That Went By.”

After reading Big Truck, I became aware of some of the fears that come in the wake of disaster, and how these fears are realized internationally. In Big Truck, there existed a need within the aid effort to “protect women and girls from sexual violence.” (Katz, p.114) The Press Association wrote that Ms Greening, International Development Secretary said “past emergencies in the Philippines have led to a sharp rise in violence against girls and women, and in trafficking in particular.” Violence against women post disaster is a concern in the Philippines, as it was in Haiti in 2010.

Another concern that is reflected in the two disasters is the uncertainty over the death toll. The Press Association reported that in the Philippines: “typhoon death toll closer to 2,000 or 2,500, not 10,000, Aquino says.” This was the same precariousness of the number of dead in Haiti, as Katz explains “Preval told my colleagues and me that the figure was 170,000. His communications director corrected him “No, no the official number is 210,000.”” Reporting the figures of how many have died is difficult to calculate post-disaster, as the figure continually rises.

The way that Katz argues that much of aid deliveries comes too late, and that preparation for disaster needs to have further organisation in advance is seen in the fact that the Press Association covered that “The UK's first flight delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid to the typhoon-struck Philippines has arrived, the Government has said” today. Even though £13 million was raised in 24 hours, time is of the essence, but so is well-thought out, and considered actions that will not risk lives, or have negative long term consequences. As Katz argues long term projects are required to keep attention and focus kept on disaster stricken areas so that they are not forgotten, and lessons can be learnt from them.