Filipinos' Views on the Disaster Information for the 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines

Abstract

Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) struck Visayas, the central region of the Philippines, in November 2013 and caused approximately 6,300 deaths. Despite a typhoon warning announcement, many people did not evacuate to safer places. This study focuses on the reasons behind the events that took place from the warning until the evacuation period, with the research objective of understanding how people view disaster warnings. After conducting a pretest and a pilot test, a questionnaire was distributed in both the English and Filipino languages. The survey was conducted in the affected areas in the Philippines in December 2013, which was less than 2 months after the disaster. All of the respondents experienced this typhoon because they remained in Tacloban, Cebu, Tagbilaran, and Talalora during the impact period. The results shed light on issues related to preferred disaster information, source, message, problems in receiving warnings and responses to the warnings. The findings improve the current understanding of warning systems and provide some suggestions for enhancing warnings and people’s responses to warnings.