Super Typhoon Man-yi strikes areas served by Unbound in the Philippines

Story updated Nov. 20, 2024
Communities served by Unbound in the Philippines are battling through the aftermath of yet another severe storm after Super Typhoon Man-yi blew through parts of the island nation over the weekend, forcing mass evacuations while packing damaging winds and heavy rains that triggered flooding.

Man-yi, locally named Pepito, made landfall in the eastern Bicol region where Unbound works with over 8,600 families through the Legazpi program. The storm moved northwest, impacting communities in northern Luzon that are served by Unbound’s Quezon program.

Tristan John Cabrera, Unbound’s regional reporter for Asia who lives in the Philippines, said that before the storm entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, there were three other severe storms affecting the country’s weather.

“I can't imagine how hard it is for all the areas who have experienced and faced all these weather disturbances within this active time,” Cabrera said.

According to news reports, there have been at least eight deaths from Typhoon Man-yi. To date, there have been no deaths or severe injuries reported among members of the Unbound community.

Coastal communities hit by multiple typhoons

Four consecutive hits by typhoons in the span of a week is unusual and has taken a greater toll than normal, even for communities used to dealing with strong storms, Unbound’s Legazpi program coordinator, Angelina Bermas, said.

This latest typhoon “brings heavy flooding, landslides and destruction to properties for people living in its path,” Bermas said. “It is hard for our sponsored families to recover immediately the way they recover when there is only one typhoon hitting our land.”

Once flooding subsides and local teams can enter communities, they will conduct assessments and begin interventions.

“The assistance to our sponsored families will be attended by our staff immediately so that they can eat, drink and buy new things that they need especially for housing repairs,” Bermas said. “For housing repairs, we send the allocated funds per family directly to their child’s savings account. The sponsored families will be the ones to decide what materials they will buy using [the funds] and start the reconstruction of their homes.”

The areas most affected by the recent storms are coastal communities that rely heavily on fishing as their main source of income. Families’ ability to fish may be impacted for days or even weeks as it remains risky for them to navigate rough waters and debris in their small motorboats.

“There is also infrastructure that has been destroyed, agricultural business that have been damaged, and people who lost their livelihood because of this calamity,” Berma said.

Despite the hardships brought on by the storms, Filipinos are resilient, and families will persevere and move forward after the calamity, Bermas said.

“Their strength is coming from their faith in God above,” she said. “They are also getting their resiliency from their family, loved ones and community.”

In areas of northern Luzon served by Unbound’s Quezon program, getting hit by one typhoon after another has made families “very vulnerable,” coordinator Marivic Ihap said. While some families had already harvested their rice crops before the super typhoon came, others hadn’t, and now their already challenging economic situations have become even more challenging.

Some areas have also been without power, and roads are impassable because of landslides.

“Communication lines are also down until now, and that’s why it is hard to communicate with our staff and parent leaders in our community living in Nueva Vizcaya and Isabella areas,” Ihap said.

Statement from Unbound's president and CEO

Ashley Hufft, president and CEO of Unbound, issued the following statement in the aftermath of Typhoon Man-yi.

“While we are awaiting specific details about the status of families and communities served by Unbound, we are of course joining the rest of the world in prayer for all those in the Philippines who have lost their lives, those who are injured, and those whose homes have sustained damage.

“We are working to gather information as our local teams mobilize to assess the situations in their communities, not only to ensure families served by Unbound’s programs can meet their immediate needs for food, shelter and medical care, but also to disburse emergency funding to families whose lives, homes and communities have been impacted by the storm.

“Because so many on the main island of Luzon and in the Bicol region where the storm made landfall have been forced to evacuate, we need to allow our staff in the region sufficient time to not only make sure they are safe, but also to check in with our many Unbound families. We will continue to hold our Philippine communities, along with our sponsored friends and their families, close in prayer while keeping our sponsors and the greater Unbound community informed.”

How to help families affected by disasters

As reports continue to come in from the field and Unbound assesses the extent of families’ needs, here are steps sponsors and others can take now to help.

• • Make sure your contact information is current. In times of natural disaster, Unbound notifies sponsors personally if we learn that their sponsored friends have been injured or otherwise seriously impacted.


• • Pray. The Unbound community is keeping all those affected and those assisting with relief efforts in our prayers.


• • Donate to the Critical Needs Fund. The fund assists families in the aftermath of events such as floods, severe storms, earthquakes and fires.

Editor’s note: In the photo at the top of this story, volunteer Neil loads relief packages into a van following Typhoon Yagi in September. Yagi is one of several severe storms that have impacted Unbound communities in the Philippines this typhoon season.

Regional reporter for Asia Tristan John Cabrera and Unbound Antipolo staff member Gwyn Rollan in the Philippines contributed information and photos for this story.