The Standard Operating Procedures for the management of cyclone shelters will need to incorporate physical distancing which would create a need to augment capacity by identifying other facilities for use as temporary shelters.

Bangladesh set a record when the country’s Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) evacuated 2.1 million people last November before Cyclone Bulbul made landfall, saving many lives.

Bangladesh CPP Director, Ahmadul Haque, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, who manages a network of 56,000 volunteers said all attention was currently on responding to COVID-19 and the usual preparedness and response planning for the cyclone season would have to be adapted accordingly.

There was a contradiction between the measures necessary for one scenario versus the other, staying at home to avoid COVID-19 but being forced to gather in large numbers in shelters to avoid the impact of a cyclone.

“This is the greatest challenge we are facing,” said Mr. Haque, along with providing personal protection equipment (PPE) to volunteers.

He said they would have to take the risk of late evacuations and to minimize the time spent in shelter. Priority would be given to older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, children and girls to be evacuated first. Alternative shelter spaces will also have to be identified to reduce density.

The CPP is redesigning its approach to disseminating early warnings at the community level to ensure physical distancing and greater use of mass communication tools including public address systems and social media.

The Philippine Red Cross is playing a major support role to the Government’s efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19. In addition to providing helplines to the general population and distributing PPE to small hospitals in Manila, the Red Cross this week started testing for the coronavirus and set up tents to augment hospital capacity, according to Secretary-General, Elizabeth Zavalla.

The Red Cross is also preparing for the rainy season in May and the 20-plus typhoons which typically strike the country in any given year mainly in June, July and August. The Red Cross is pre-positioning emergency supplies around the country in anticipation of the typhoon season.

“The situation now is difficult. If you have a typhoon, an evacuation centre will be difficult to maintain now because usually there is no distancing which we have to practice now,” she said.

Lemau Afamasaga from the Palau Red Cross Society highlighted the importance of making trustworthy information available and ensuring community outreach, especially with regard to the dual impact of drought and COVID-19 in the north Pacific.  

Daniel Gilman from OCHA pointed to the logistical challenges, for instance, COVID-induced travel restrictions that will impede humanitarian response in case of a major disaster, and hence the need to rely on remote sensing and analysis and less on direct assessments to calculate humanitarian needs.  

Equally important is the need for greater localization of preparedness and response efforts, underscored by local partnerships, pointed Jeremy Wellard from the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, and routing funding directly to local actors.

Hazards

Cyclone Epidemic & Pandemic

Themes

Disaster Risk Management Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

Country & Region

Asia