Typhoon Yagi recovery has the awkwardness to begin before the visit
First, a delegation visited northern Viet Nam to observe the Typhoon Yagi recovery. Residents welcomed them while continuing the unfashionable policy phase known as rebuilding houses, services and lives before the briefing slides arrived.
Typhoon Yagi struck in September 2024 and affected 3.6 million people. It damaged roads, communications and more than 800 health facilities across 26 provinces. Consequently, recovery required rather more than a lanyard and a carefully angled group photograph.
UN agencies and Australia funded a joint response plan. Meanwhile, representatives travelled to Lao Cai to see how international support could assist long term recovery. The communities had usefully prepared the subject matter by doing the recovery themselves.
Clipboard confirms people have been remarkably resilient
“We came to understand resilience and found everyone using it,” said Peregrine Lanyard, deputy coordinator of observational footwear. “Our clipboard has recorded several impressive roofs, plus a very moving example of somebody getting on with it.”
However, residents described the work still ahead. Delegates listened closely. Listening remains the only aid mechanism that fits completely inside a return flight’s hand luggage, alongside a branded water bottle and the phrase ‘valuable insights’.
Such visits can expose gaps and improve future support. In addition, they risk mistaking a swept meeting room for daily life beyond it. A neat itinerary is not a recovery plan, although it does photograph better beside one.
Finally, residents returned to repairing homes, services and livelihoods. The delegation departed with lessons, twelve photographs and a renewed definition of resilience that carefully omitted the people demonstrating it outside the venue.
Thus, the Typhoon Yagi recovery gained another set of witnesses. The surviving communities gained the useful assurance that their effort had now been observed by people qualified to describe it in a future PDF.
Read the real story: WHO Viet Nam’s report on the Lao Cai recovery visit
