Bearing witness to Typhoon Hagupit, part 1

After much deliberation last December 5, our team arrived at a doable action given the modest amount of resources at the most immediate time possible to respond to areas where typhoon Hagupit makes landfall. We have another team sent to Legaspi ahead of time to document the impact the typhoon makes. As for our team, since we can't go to Dolores in Eastern Samar yet, we decided to first bear witness to the typhoon as it makes landfall in Laiya, Batangas.

Trees violently swaying, residents moving to evacuation sites, and empty grade school classrooms greeted us when our team arrived in Laiya. We visited evacuation centers to check how people are doing and supplied them with some solar power kits for lighting.

Here's a quick summary of how we responded during the typhoon, in pictures: