ANIBONG, Philippines — A year after super Typhoon Haiyan turned a huge swath of the central Philippines into a body-littered wasteland, many survivors are struggling to rebuild their homes from the ruins, including in government-designated danger zones where future typhoons could wreck their lives again.
In the hard-hit coastal village of Anibong, shantytowns are rising around now-rusty cargo ships that were washed ashore by powerful waves from one of the strongest storms ever recorded to make landfall. One villager's house stands beside a concrete post marked, ''No build zone.''
Villagers say they rebuilt along the coast because they have nowhere else to go. Most are fishermen, and want to be close to their boats, but they say they are willing to relocate once the government gives them land or housing.
Packing winds of up to 235 kilometres an hour and triggering a tsunami-like storm surge that rose over six meters high, Haiyan, called Yolanda locally, laid waste to most of the structures along its path on Leyte.
A girl's shoes are tied on a cross at a mass grave outside a church in Palo, Leyte province, Central Philippines. (AP photo)
Altogether in the central Philippines, an estimated 6,300 people were killed, more than 1,000 remain missing, and nearly 4.1 million people were displaced from their homes.
Authorities estimated the cost of damage from the super typhoon at nearly 89.6 billion pesos (almost $2 billion) as houses, schools, and government buildings were flattened, bridges and roads were wrecked, and farmlands were wasted.
While authorities, aid agencies and survivors say that much has improved in the people's lives, they emphasize that full recovery has yet to come, and the country remains at risk of the same kind of disaster.
Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman described the rebuilding effort as "gargantuan." He said that while many managed to rebuild their homes, the Philippine government, backed by foreign donors and aid organizations, still must resettle about 200,000 families to permanent housing sites in the next two or three years.
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The displaced are housed in temporary shelters and bunkhouses while others live with relatives or in hastily erected shacks. About 300 families are still living in tents, but they could be moved to better - though still temporary - housing in the next few weeks, Soliman said.
Former coconut farmer Pacalan Wenefredo, 59, worked for 20 years on land held for generations in his family in the inland village of Cancaiyas in central Philippines to produce copra, the dried kernel used for making coconut oil but Haiyan destroyed 80 percent of his trees. He has now taken to growing rice.
A before-and-after photo of Tacloban city, central Philippines on Nov 8, 2013 and this week. The remains of a ship that washed ashore during the super typhoon still stands in the middle of the community. (Reuters photo)
It is much less profitable but Wenefredo said he had no choice. He has just sold his first harvest, halving his income, but he needs money to repay debts incurred before the storm.
"We will continue with the rice farming. It is our only source of living at the moment," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, sitting on a bench in the stiflingly hot living room of fellow coconut-farmer-turned-rice-farmer Gerry Baclayo, 44, who could only nod in agreement.
"Less than half of our needs are covered by the income ... we do extra labour work," he said. "We borrow money, sometimes without interest, sometimes with 10% interest, so we can buy fish because it's hard to eat just rice."
While much has been accomplished since Haiyan hit on Nov. 8 last year. Power, water and cellphone services are back and nearby Tacloban city throbs with life again. But the Asian Development Bank estimates 5.6 million workers in a nation of about 100 million saw their means of earning a living ruined or seriously impaired by the disaster - and about a third of those affected were already poor.
Like nearly all his 300 neighbours, Marianito Abrematea's house was destroyed in the storm and he has been living for the past year in a hut made of thatched palm leaves.
"We're really happy, things will be a lot more comfortable," Abrematea, 57, a farmer in the tiny village of Dagami, told AFP as he took a break from building his new, concrete-brick house funded by the Red Cross. "Now we'll have houses of GI sheets (corrugated iron) and concrete, we won't be so scared."
Thousands of homes lie destroyed near the fishport after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city, central Philippines Nov 8, 2013. Authorities estimated the cost of damage from the super typhoon at nearly 89.6 billion pesos (almost $2 billion) as houses, schools, and government buildings were flattened, bridges and roads were wrecked, and farmlands were wasted. (Reuters photo)
"We're 60%-70% back to where we were but there is still a lot to be done,'' Soliman agreed. "We need to work on the permanent shelters, repair of shelters and sustainable livelihood."
In a recent interview, Leyte governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said the island province, which bore the brunt of Haiyan, already manifests "very big improvement" and "a very fast recovery."
"Right after the typhoon, even if they were victims, all the people helped each other," Petilla said, adding that aid from foreign countries and nongovernmental organizations "saved a lot of lives."
Typhoon survivor Ruben Soleyao sits near his house at Anibong, Tacloban city, Leyte province, Central Philippines. Soleyao is one of many residents who went back to rebuild their homes near the shore as they wait for relocation to safer grounds. (AP photo)
Alfred Romualdez, mayor of the Leyte capital of Tacloban, which suffered the most casualties and property damage, said the city has already recovered half of what it used to be before the typhoon. More than 50% of businesses are back in operation, most social services are running, and the city's infrastructure is being rebuilt, he said.
"We are on the road definitely to recovery. We're now in the rehabilitation and reconstruction stage," Romualdez said.
On Oct 29, President Benigno Aquino approved a comprehensive rehabilitation and recovery plan for the Haiyan-affected areas, which will cost nearly 168 billion pesos, focusing on long-term and sustainable efforts to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen the affected communities' capacity to cope with future typhoon hazards.
"The common question would be 'are we more prepared now?' Well, definitely, we're more prepared, but not to the standard that we would like to see. Not yet, because it takes resources to help us and make us better prepared," Romualdez said.
"If another Yolanda hits us tomorrow, then, maybe, we are not fully prepared the way we would want to be," he said.
Yet no matter how much is built, survivors say they will never be able to shake the horror of a year ago. Today Tacloban will hold a memorial service for the victims who were buried in a mass grave.
"Maybe my missing daughter and grandchildren were among the dead buried in the mass grave," said Pacita de la Cruz, whose family is still living in a shelter. "That would be best so they can also rest and we can go on with our lives."
Young typhoon survivors walk outside their homes at a permanent relocation site in Tanuan, Leyte province, central Philippines. (AP photo)