Siargao was among the hardest hit places by Typhoon Odette, with communications downed by the typhoon as a result.

According to the latest advisory by PLDT-Smart on Monday morning, December 20, while it has restored 96% of wireless services and 99% of fixed services in Mindanao, “major restoration services are still ongoing in Surigao del Norte including Siargao, Misamis Oriental, and Dinagat Islands.” 

Meanwhile Globe’s latest advisory, received on Monday afternoon, says it “restored services in Misamis Oriental and Tagbilaran City in Bohol” and there are more restored sites that “are now operational in the provinces of Palawan, Iloilo, parts of Samar and Agusan del Norte.” Cebu is also seeing restoration progress according to the company. 

Without these services, it’s difficult to know the status of those in Siargao after Typhoon Odette. 

Aiding in the process is an online, crowdsourced document on Google Sheets where families and friends can list down a person or persons they haven’t been able to get in touch with yet. Information on how to do so is included in the document. 

According to the document, the list is printed every morning, and flown to Siargao. Volunteers check whether a person on the list has been found, and update the document accordingly. “There is currently no signal or internet in Siargao. The list is printed every morning and a volunteer has to fly with the printed list to Siargao Island,” the document says. 

The online document is updated with new information coming from Siargao. 

As of writing, the document lists a total of 3,296 names, with some 384 marked safe, and with the status of 2,912 unknown.

A Facebook Group called “IAO Typhoon Odette Information Exchange and Updates 2.0” has also seen people looking for their relatives or friends, or updating the Group when they’ve found who they’re looking for. – Rappler.com 

(Editor’s note: The link to the file has been delisted as per the request of the file owner.)