TEAM RUBICON ON URGENT SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION
IN THE PHILIPPINES NOVEMBER 13, 2013
Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, Vienna,
Virginia, USA
HAIYAN REACHED THE PHILIPPINES: FRIDAY, NOV.
8
- - - A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS DEVELOPED AFTER HAIYAN DEVASTATED THE
PHILIPPINES
DIMENSIONS OF THE CRISIS
• Hospitals were either damaged or destroyed and unable to cope with the urgent healthcare needs.
• Medical staff did their best, but lacked adequate facilities, power and the necessary supplies.
DIMENSIONS OF THE CRISIS
• Infrastructure (utilities, sewage facilities, roads, bridges, airports, etc.) had been destroyed or rendered inoperable by Haiyan.
• As a result, search and rescue operations were SLOW, or bordering on the impossible.
THE TIME AVAILABLE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE WAS
GROWING VERY SHORT
THE PEOPLE NEEDED HELP!
• A large fraction of the estimated 9.5 million people, including 1.7 million children, who were adversely affected in some way needed safe drinking water, food, and medicine.
• An alarming number of cases of dysentery were being reported.
TEAM RUBICON
Team Rubicon is a nonprofit, 8,000-person, all-volunteer force of ex-USA-
military service members
THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC
All Members (men and women) have experience working together in difficult
situations as a result of previous combat experience
EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS DISASTER EXPERIENCE
• After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010
• After super storm Sandy—October 2012
TEAM RUBICON: ENROUTE TO A FIELD HOSPITAL
DEPLOYED ON NOVEMBER 11
• Mission was to assist the Philippines Government in urgent search and rescue operations.
• Activities were complementary to those of the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, and others,
INITIAL MISSION IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Perform “patient extraction and medical triage” at the field hospital in Tanauan, where doctors have already performed nearly 100 operations, including numerous limb amputations.
INITIAL MISSION IN THE PHILIPPINES
• The U.S. veterans – wearing work boots, hardhats and harnesses – also plan to establish a supply chain while delivering tourniquets and trauma kits containing gauze, pressure dressings, and nasal tubes meant to open airways.