Her name was Yolanda

After hitting land in the wee hours of the morning in the town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar, she went “island-hopping” – touching down in Tolosa town in Leyte, then Daang Bantayan and Bantayan Island in Cebu, on to Concepcion town in Iloilo, passing through Aklan, Antique and Mindoro, before finally making her 6th landfall in Busuanga, Palawan.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said at least 6,300 were left dead. Earlier numbers said as many as 10,000; other aid groups estimated 8,000.

Relief and recovery efforts started painfully slow. Remains of the dead littered towns and cities. Survivors scrambled for food and shelter. Local governments were overwhelmed. They had never seen anything like her before.

Six months after she swept through the country, over 4 million individuals have been displaced and left homeless, more than 1,000 are still missing. 

On the eve of the sixth month that marked her destructive arrival, the national government said it is still without a final rehabilitation plan.