Marissa Flores - Coverage of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) - 2013 Peabody Award Acceptance Speech
Channel: Peabody Awards
Date: 2014-12-11

Winner 2013 | GMA Networks, Inc.

Typhoons are a fact of life in the Philippines, but the usual warnings and procedures didn’t begin to prepare citizens for Yolanda (international name “Haiyan”). Likely the strongest in history, Yolanda not only hit the Visayas region with monstrous force on November 8 but, as if it had a malevolent mind of its own, the storm feinted and struck again and again, making landfall a total of six devastating times. The destruction was mind-boggling: more than 6,000 lives lost, more than a million houses battered or destroyed, total damages estimated at $1.6 trillion. Faced with daunting logistical challenges and sharing in the national shock and grief, GMA reporters and crews from State of the Nation with Jessica Soho, 24 Oras (24 Hours), Saksi (Eyewitness), 24 Oras Weekend and Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho (One at Heart, Jessica Soho) provided desperately needed spot news coverage and information, gaining strength and perspective as they worked. They followed up with solid reporting and public-service broadcasts about the aftermath, heroic acts and relief efforts. The coverage includes footage of storm-surge rapids ripping through streets and apocalyptic winds decapitating houses that’s so close-up and intense that it’s a wonder the videographers survived. For overcoming the challenges posed by a historic storm to provide coverage that was thorough, candid and compassionate, a Peabody Award goes to GMA Network’s coverage of SuperTyphoon Yolanda.

Link: http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/coverage-of-supertyphoon-yolanda-haiyan-gma-network-inc.-philippines