Typhoon Unlikely to Have Long-Term Impact on Philippines Outsourcing Industry

Typhoon Unlikely to Have Long-Term Impact on Philippines Outsourcing Industry
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CIO – As the total impact of Typhoon Haiyan on the Philippines becomes clear and rescue and aid work continues, it appears that
the country’s flourishing IT and business process outsourcing industry emerged largely unscathed.

“In the outsourcing industry, the main issues are not loss of life or property damage. The main issues are absenteeism due
to family issues or volunteer work and also intermittent power grid issues.” – Frances Karamouzis, Research Vice President, Gartner

Manila, which for around 65 percent of the nation’s $ 16 billion IT and customer management business, was largely unaffected
by the killer storm. The typhoon, which ripped across the country on November 8, killed more than 5,000 people, according
to the United Nations, and displaced more than three million.

“In some cases, recovery may never take place because they have been all but wiped out,” says Jerry Durant, a partner with
outsourcing consultancy NeoGroup based in Manila. “But this has zero impact on sourcing as it presently stands.”

The Impact on Outsourcing

“In the outsourcing industry, the main issues are not loss of life or property damage,” says Frances Karamouzis, research
vice president at Gartner. “The main issues are absenteeism due to family issues or volunteer work and also intermittent power
grid issues.”

Cebu, the second largest outsourcing hub accounting for around 15 percent of industry revenues, was closer to the path of
the storm, taking an indirect hit. The city and surrounding area employs 95,000 people in outsourcing, according to the Cebu
Investment Promotion Center with the 17 new outsourcing offices opened there in the last year generating 11,000 new jobs.

Some of the major providers, such as Teleperformance, Convergys, and Aegis have indicated that they have no damages to facilities and the large majority of employees are safe.

” Cognizant, which also has a Cebu facility, said it had no loss of life or major issues. But “there [has been] employee absenteeism
as people are understandably checking on family and helping with relief efforts,” says Karamouzis.

In addition, employees are impacted on a psychological level as they have personal ties to affected areas, says Durant.

Accenture and Country’s Trade Group Need to Speak Up

The industry employs about 750,000 professionals in IT and business process outsourcing and is led by 10 to 15 very large
vendors (including IBM, Cognizant, Capgemini, Dell, HCL, Genpact, WNS, Infosy, and EXL) and dozens of mid-tier providers.
The biggest player is Accenture, which Gartner estimates employs around 35,000 people there.

But neither Accenture nor the country’s industry trade group, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), has issued a public statement or regular updates on the effects of the storm that has left clients in the dark.

“This is a sign of immature approach to the current realities of this world of information, social media, et cetera,” says
Karamouzis, who said officials at the BPAP indicated to her that they don’t feel the storm will have a long-term impact on
the industry.

Netflash

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VIDEO: Reports Place Philippines" Typhoon Death Toll at 10,000

Officials estimate at least 10,000 people are dead after Typhoon Haiyan’s destructive rampage through the Philippines.

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VIDEO: Reports Place Philippines" Typhoon Death Toll at 10,000

VIDEO: Reports Place Philippines" Typhoon Death Toll at 10,000

Officials estimate at least 10,000 people are dead after Typhoon Haiyan’s destructive rampage through the Philippines.

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VIDEO: Reports Place Philippines" Typhoon Death Toll at 10,000

Survivors "walk like zombies" after Philippine typhoon kills estimated 10,000

By Manuel Mogato

TACLOBAN, Philippines Sat Nov 9, 2013 9:53pm EST

1 of 15. A man stands atop debris as residents salvage belongings from the ruins of their houses after Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city in central Philippines November 10, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Erik De Castro

TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) – One of the most powerful storms ever recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines province of Leyte, a senior police official said on Sunday, with coastal towns and the regional capital devastated by huge waves.

Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of the area in its path as it tore through the province on Friday, said chief superintendent Elmer Soria, a regional police director.

Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging sea water strewn with debris that many described as similar to a tsunami, which leveled houses and drowned hundreds of people.

The national government and disaster agency have not confirmed the latest estimate of deaths, a sharp increase from initial estimates on Saturday of at least 1,000 killed.

“We had a meeting last night with the governor and the other officials. The governor said, based on their estimate, 10,000 died,” Soria told Reuters. “The devastation is so big.”

Haiyan, a category 5 typhoon that churned through the Philippine archipelago in a straight line from east to west, packing wind gusts of around 275 kph (170 mph), weakened significantly before hitting northern Vietnam on Sunday.

Leyte province’s capital of Tacloban, with a population of 220,000, bore the brunt of Haiyan, which was possibly the strongest storm ever to make landfall.

The city and nearby villages as far as one kilometer from shore were flooded by the storm surge, leaving floating bodies and roads choked with debris from fallen trees, tangled power lines and flattened homes. TV footage showed children clinging to rooftops for their lives.

“From a helicopter, you can see the extent of devastation. From the shore and moving a kilometer inland, there are no structures standing. It was like a tsunami,” said Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas, who had been in Tacloban since before the typhoon struck the city, about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Manila.

“I don’t know how to describe what I saw. It’s horrific.”

City officials said they were struggling to retrieve bodies and send relief supplies to survivors. They also reported widespread looting as authorities struggled to restore order and repair shattered communications.

“There is looting in the malls and large supermarkets. They are taking everything even appliances like TV sets, these will be traded later on for food,” said Tecson John Lim, the Tacloban city administrator.

“We don’t have enough manpower. We have 2,000 employees but only about 100 are reporting for work. Everyone is attending to their families.”

Lim said city officials had so far only collected 300-400 bodies, but believed the death toll in the city alone could be 10,000.

“The dead are on the streets, they are in their houses, they are under the debris, they are everywhere,” he said.

International aid agencies said relief efforts in the Philippines are stretched thin after a 7.2 magnitude quake in central Bohol province last month and displacement caused by a conflict with Muslim rebels in southern Zamboanga province.

The World Food Programme said it was airlifting 40 tons of high energy biscuits, enough to feed 120,000 people for a day, as well as emergency supplies and telecommunications equipment.

Tacloban city airport was all but destroyed as seawaters swept through the city, shattering the glass of the airport tower, leveling the terminal and overturning nearby vehicles.

Airport manager Efren Nagrama, 47, said water levels rose up to four meters (13 feet).

“It was like a tsunami. We escaped through the windows and I held on to a pole for about an hour as rain, seawater and wind swept through the airport,” he said. “Some of my staff survived by clinging to trees. I prayed hard all throughout until the water subsided.”

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Nick Macfie)

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Survivors "walk like zombies" after Philippine typhoon kills estimated 10,000

Typhoon warning: Vietnam evacuates 600,000 in fear of Haiyan devastation

Typhoon warning: Vietnam evacuates 600,000 in fear of Haiyan devastation
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Published time: November 10, 2013 16:14

Residents collect sandbags to protect their houses against Typhoon Haiyan in Vietnam’s central Da Nang city, November 9, 2013.(Reuters / Duc Hien)

As super-typhoon Haiyan has left some 10,000 dead in the Philippines, over 600,000 people have been evacuated as it approaches Vietnam. “Those who do not move voluntarily will be forced” to move, Vietnam’s flood and storm control department said.

Vietnam is preparing its defenses after the storm annihilated the Philippines over the weekend, leaving thousands dead and a trail of devastation through Tacloban, the capital of Leyte province.

Haiyan destroyed 70 percent to 80 percent of the area as it ripped through the province Friday, police chief superintendent Elmer Soria told Reuters. Aid workers are only now beginning to gain access to affected areas.

The appropriate measures are being taken in Vietnam before the typhoon strikes. “We have evacuated more than 174,000 households, which is equivalent to more than 600,000 people,” the storm department said Sunday.

Mass evacuations are taking place in the central Da Nang and Quang Ngai provinces. Numerous schools have closed nationwide as people move to higher ground, and some shelters are “overloaded,” according to state-run VNExpress.

“People must bring enough food and necessities for three days,” the report said. All boats have been grounded, with tens of thousands of those directed to take shelter situated in coastal areas. Residents of Hanoi are also preparing themselves for heavy rain and floods. The storm has already been blamed for the drowning of a school girl in the central Thua Thien Hue Province.

The announcement follows new reports that the storm is changing its course. It is now anticipated to pummel the country on Monday at 7am, after moving in a north-to-northwesterly direction at a speed of around 35 kilometers an hour, according to the Vietnamese weather bureau. Upon landfall, it will have gathered winds of around 74 kilometers an hour.

The Red Cross stated that the change of direction meant that the disaster area “could be enlarged from nine provinces to as many as 15,” according to a statement released to AFP.

However, some 200,000 people evacuated from the southern central provinces have been permitted to return to their homes as they are no longer at risk, according to a governmental report published on their website.

By Sunday afternoon, the typhoon had already battered Vietnam’s Con Co Island, where its 250 inhabitants were relocated to underground shelters containing food supplies for several days. The storm brought with it three-meter high waves, according to Vietnamese newspaper, Tuoi Tre.

Haiyan is one of the world’s most powerful-ever storms, based on its recorded wind speed, which at landfall was 195 miles per hour, with gusts as much as 235 miles per hour. It is thought to have been even stronger than Hurricane Camille, which caused devastation in the US in 1969.

RT – News

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VIDEO: Rescuers Pull Boat Crew from Typhoon-Hit Waters

Crew members from a barge that was hit hard by waves from super typhoon Haiyan can be seen in this footage trying to get ashore. Via WSJ’s global news update The Foreign Bureau.

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VIDEO: Rescuers Pull Boat Crew from Typhoon-Hit Waters

TYPHOON USAGI: 135 MPH WINDS...

Typhoon Usagi, a strong tropical cyclone in the western Pacific Ocean, is packing winds equivalent to a categoy 4 Hurricane. Over the next 24 hours Usagi will threaten parts of Taiwan, the far northern Philippines and southern China.

Usagi strengthened to a super typhoon Friday morning before weakening slightly to below super typhoon strength Friday night.  Further weakening is expected before making landfall late Sunday, local time. 

Latest IR Satellite Image

Latest IR Satellite Image

Usagi Forecast Path

Usagi Forecast Path

A tropical cyclone is dubbed a “super typhoon” when maximum sustained winds reach at least 150 mph. Usagi underwent a period of rapid intensification from early Wednesday through midday Thursday (U.S. Eastern time), going from a 55-knot tropical storm to a 140-knot super typhoon in just 33 hours, or just under a 100 mph intensification, based on satellite estimates of intensity.

By Friday night, though, Usagi underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, causing the storm to weaken slightly. In addition, the outer rain bands began to interact with Tawain and Luzon, disrupting the storm’s low-level inflow, further weakening the storm.

Nevertheless, Usagi is still a powerful typhoon, and it is expected to maintain a west-northwest path through the weekend. Here are the potential forecast impacts by location for Usagi:

Taiwan

• Closest approach of center of Usagi: Saturday afternoon, local time.


• The most likely path for the center of Usagi is to pass near the southern tip of Taiwan at that time. This would put Taiwan in the most dangerous eastern semicircle of Usagi.


• Potential impacts: Surge flooding/battering waves (eastern coast especially), damaging winds (particularly southern Taiwan), flooding rain/mudslides (central, eastern Taiwan).


• Local forecast: Taipei

Northern Philippines

• The center of Usagi will likely pass north of the north coast of Luzon on Saturday, local time.


• Potential impacts: Coastal flooding/high surf along the north coast of Luzon, bands of locally heavy rain (trigger flash flooding/mudslides), some wind damage possible.


• Local forecast: Manila

Hong Kong

• Closest approach of center of Usagi: Sunday afternoon/evening, local time.


• Current forecast anticipates Usagi will weaken before reaching southern China, but still may be a Category 1, 2 or 3 equivalent system.


• Potential impacts: These will depend on exact track of Usagi’s center Sunday. It is still too soon to forecast these impacts.


• Local forecast: Hong Kong

Incidentally, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with over 7.1 million residents, as of a 2012 estimate.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Typhoon Utor Photos (August 2013)

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TYPHOON USAGI: 135 MPH WINDS...

1,130 Tons of Contaminated Fukushima Water Dumped in Sea After Typhoon

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NAMIE, JAPAN – MARCH 08: Policemen stand at checkpoint in the village of Tsushima on March 8, 2013 in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Japan is preparing to commemorate the second anniversary of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that claimed more than 18,000 lives. (Photo by Ken Ishii/Getty Images)

By JG Vibes
Intellihub.com
September 18, 2013

On Tuesday, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant said that over 1,000 tons of contaminated water was dumped into the sea after a typhoon hit the area.

Typhoon Man-yi hit Japan on Monday, causing heavy rains and uncontrollable floods.

“Workers measured the radioactive levels of the water collected in the enclosure walls, pumping it back into tanks when the levels were high,” said a TEPCO official.

“Once finding it was mostly rain water they released it from the enclosure, because there is a limit on how much water we can store.”

The Tokyo Times reported that:

The utility said the rainwater was discharged from barriers at seven locations and contained strontium 90, which can cause bone cancer if ingested. The beta radiation given off by the strontium did not exceed the government’s limit of 30 becquerels per liter, it said.

Tepco said the radiation level of the water overall, including strontium 90, which accounted for about half of the beta ray emissions, maxed out at 24 becquerels per liter.

In areas where water samples were highly toxic, however, Tepco took a different approach and transferred it elsewhere through makeshift pumps. One of those areas contained rainwater that was emitting 170,000 becquerels per liter, far higher than allowed.

Additionally, both TEPCO and the UN continue to raise the acceptable levels of radiation, so just because the government says its healthy, doesn’t mean that it actually is.

This is still small when compared to the 300 tons of contaminated groundwater that has been leaking into the sea every day for years.

Sources:

[1] 1,130 tons of tainted Fukushima water dumped in sea after typhoon – Japan Today

[2] Tepco discharges tainted rainwater from storage tank areas – Tokyo Times

Writer Bio:

JG Vibes is an Intellihub.com investigative journalist, staff writer and editor. He is also the author of “Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance”, an 87 chapter e-book and is an artist with an established record label. Find him on his Facebook.

For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author, email: vibes@intellihub.com or telephone: (347) 759-6075.

Read more articles by this author here.

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

1,130 Tons of Contaminated Fukushima Water Dumped in Sea After Typhoon

Britain sends Typhoon jets to Cyprus

The MoD says Britain has deployed six Typhoon jets to Cyprus base near Syria.

Britain has deployed six Typhoon jets to its Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus as the Western rhetoric of war continues against Syria, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) says.

“We can confirm that as part of ongoing contingency planning, 6 RAF Typhoon interceptor fast jets are deploying this morning to Akrotiri in Cyprus,” said an Royal Air Force (RAF) spokesman.

The MoD said the RAF fighters were flying to the Mediterranean on Thursday, ahead of a potential foreign military intervention in Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.

The MoD also claimed that the deployment of jets was not aimed at conducting a military strike on the Arab country, but served as a “purely precautionary measure.”

The Typhoons flying from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, east England, were reported to have been fitted with advanced short range air-to-air missiles, medium range air-to-air missiles, and a Mauser cannon.

On August 21, the militants operating inside Syria and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed that 1,300 people had been killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds in Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar.

However, the Syrian government categorically rejected the baseless claim, and announced later that the chemical attack had actually been carried out by the militants themselves as a false flag operation.

SSM/MOS/HE

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Britain sends Typhoon jets to Cyprus

Philippines hit by year"s strongest typhoon; 13 missing

MANILA (Reuters) – The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year triggered landslides and floods on Monday, disrupting power and communication links to leave one man dead and 13 fishermen missing, weather and disaster officials said.

Reuters: Top News

Philippines hit by year"s strongest typhoon; 13 missing

Taiwan braces for Typhoon Soulik

12 July 2013 Last updated at 00:48 ET

Typhoon Soulik has wind speeds of around 173km/hour (100 mph)

Taiwan is braced for the arrival of Typhoon Soulik, a tropical hurricane expected to bring strong winds and torrential rain to the island.

Schools and offices in northern cities are expected to close on Friday afternoon as the storm nears.

The typhoon was 450 km (280 miles) southeast of Yilan county on Friday morning, Taiwan’s weather bureau said.

In 2009, Taiwan was hit by Typhoon Morakot, which left hundreds dead in floods and mudslides.

Typhoon Soulik, which was earlier classed as a “super typhoon”, weakened overnight and has been downgraded to a medium-force typhoon.

However, it still had wind speeds of around 173 km/hour (100 mph) on Friday morning.

Hundreds of soldiers are on stand-by for emergency response operations and 102 military camps have been prepared as emergency shelters, the Central Emergency Operations Center said.

In a statement, the centre also warned that some areas of Taiwan were prone to landslides.

“The central region of Taiwan has experienced two earthquakes with magnitude six or above on 27 March and 2 June, [and] loose soil after seismic activities are potential disaster areas under heavy rainfall,” it said.

It advised that fishing boats return to the shore before the typhoon hit, and asked members of the public to avoid mountain and coastal areas.

Typhoons are common during the summer in parts of East Asia, where the warm moist air and low pressure conditions enable tropical cyclones to form.

BBC News – Asia

Taiwan braces for Typhoon Soulik