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.