Many thousands of homes were totally destroyed when super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck the Philippines on November 8, 2013. Many of those left homeless in Tacloban City immediately set about building a new place to stay after the typhoon. They sorted through the rubble and debris piles, pulling out whatever useable lumber and galvanized tin they could find and quickly hammered together some emergency shelter. This was particularly important because of the large amounts of rain that continued to fall on Tacloban in the weeks and even months after typhoon Yolanda.

The shelters in this video were built on the open market area of downtown Tacloban. The small crowd you see at about one minute into the video is gathered there to watch as scrap metal is being weighed. Those who collected the scrap were paid by the pound for the metal. With so much debris, there was a lot of metal to be collected, but, of course, the price fell considerably and people were paid very little. Still, it was one of the few ways that people could earn any kind of an income in the weeks after the typhoon. Many people had lost their livelihoods as well as their homes and possessions.

What you hear in the video could easily be the soundtrack of the post-typhoon recovery – hammering from dawn to dusk.

Tags: homeless, Philippines Bike Trip 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda, Tacloban, Tacloban City, typhoon