UN / HOLMES

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes comments on a string of natural disasters in Asia, including the storm in the Philippines which left almost two million people struggling to cope with dangerous flooding. UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:24
• Production Date: 1 October 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; DISASTER PREVENTION; DISASTER PREPAREDNESS; DISASTER RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: PHILIPPINES
• MAMS Id: U091001e

Description

STORY: UN / HOLMES
TRT: 2.24
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 1 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

Shotlist

RECENT 2009, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

1 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, press conference
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“We believe that something like three million people have been affected. In the Philippines in particular this is a very serious event in which a month’s rainfall fell in 24 hours resulting in six-meter flood waters, in particular in Manila and surrounding areas: Landslide, destruction of infrastructure, major destruction of housing, and so on.”
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“The government of Vietnam’s at least initial estimate of damages is in only five of the twelve affected provinces amounts to more than 120 million dollars. Again there are more storms forecast for the area which could trigger further flooding and landslides.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“We are planning to launch a flash appeal next week, early next week for this disaster in the Philippines. I can’t give you a figure yet but it will certainly be tens of millions of dollars obviously we are looking at the possibility of using the central emergency relief response fund to kick-start our funding in the usual way there and the agencies in the area, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, all mobilizing their efforts as much as possible.”
9. Cutaway, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“The government has already declared a two-month emergency phase which I think is already an indication of the severity of this crisis. There have even been suggestions that this may be a worse disaster than the earthquake in 2006, but that’s really speculation at the moment, but clearly it’s a serious event and we are responding appropriately.”
11. Cutaway, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“There is a specific tsunami warning system, they have the sensors, they have the buoys in the ocean, warnings were given; I think the particular problem, as I understand, in Samoa is that the earthquake was very close to Samoa, and therefore the tsunami arrived ten minutes after the earthquake happened. So although the warnings could have been issued, by the time that warning could be transmitted from the various centers to the people on the ground - and that’s always the most difficult bit, the last mile as they call it - to actually make sure the warnings reach people through sirens, it was simply too late by then.”
13. Wide shot, press conference

Storyline

The United Nations is rushing teams to Indonesia to survey the damage in the wake of a massive earthquake, as a senior official with the world body today (1 October) called for global unity in responding to a series of deadly natural disasters that have struck Asia in recent days.

The Philippines is trying to cope with the effects of last week’s devastating typhoon, where an estimated 2.5 million people have been affected by the deadly storm, more than half of whom have been made homeless. A quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck the island of Sumatra yesterday, followed by a series of other strong quakes. And a tsunami struck a group of islands in the South Pacific on Tuesday, including the Island of American Samoa.

Speaking about the Ondoy typhoon that hit the Philippines and Vietnam, Holmes said that he believed that something like three million people had been affected.

He said that in the Philippines in particular this was a very serious event in which a month’s rainfall fell in twenty-four hours, resulting in six meter flood waters, in particular in Manila and surrounding areas.

Holmes said that the government of Vietnam’s initial estimate of damages in only five of the twelve affected provinces amounted to more than 120 million dollars.

He added that his agency was planning to launch a flash appeal early next week for the disaster in the Philippines.

On Indonesia, Holmes said that the government had already declared a two-month emergency phase which he thought was already an indication of the severity of that crisis. There had already been suggestions that it may have been a worse disaster than the earthquake in 2006.

Regarding the early warning system for the island of American Samoa Holmes said he thought the particular problem was that the earthquake happened very close to Samoa, with the tsunami arriving only ten minutes later. So he said that although a warning could have been issued, by the time it was transmitted from the various centers to the people on the ground, “it was simply too late by then”.