What we’re watching: Weekly disaster update, November 17
Here’s what we’re watching for the week of Nov. 17, 2025.
New or Emerging Disasters
Typhoon Fung-wong – Taiwan: More than 8,300 people were evacuated ahead of Typhoon Fung-wong in Taiwan. Downpours and neck-high floods inundated the mountainous east coast, injuring 51 people and damaging more than 1,000 homes.
Atmospheric river – California: Two people died in Santa Barbara County, California, when heavy rainfall caused massive flooding and debris flows. An additional four people died, and four others were hospitalized after a boat carrying Mexican migrants capsized off the southern California coast amid stormy seas.
At least four inches of rain fell in one hour along the coast before the storm moved to Los Angeles. Burn scars left by the wildfires in January 2025 contributed to the debris flows and flooding in the region.
Landslides – Indonesia: Rain-induced landslides in Central Java killed at least 18 people on Nov. 10 and Nov. 15. Rescue efforts are challenging as people have been buried in debris at least 10 to 25 feet deep. Many people are still missing, and at least 30 homes have been buried.
Storm Claudia – Portugal: A major storm brought violent weather to Portugal on Nov. 15. At least three people died and dozens were injured, many from severe flooding. One person died as a result of a tornado that struck a camping area in southern Portugal, injuring 28 others at a nearby hotel.
Previous/Ongoing Disasters
Tornado – St. Louis: Six months after a powerful tornado leveled parts of St. Louis, damaging 5,000 buildings and homes and killing four people, recovery is still uncertain. Some residents are still living in tents in the front yards of their destroyed homes.
Due to federal policy changes, much of the recovery that would have traditionally been the responsibility of FEMA fell to local officials and residents, who had to develop a disaster response plan during the disaster.
Schools are still closed due to damage, and many homes, especially in North St. Louis (a predominantly Black neighborhood), still haven’t been repaired or rebuilt. St. Louis aldermen have approved a historic amount of funding to shelter a record number of people left homeless after the tornado in the coming winter.
Complex Humanitarian Emergencies – Haiti
When a country experiences political conflict, climate shocks, famine, economic challenges or other conditions, it may suffer a complex humanitarian emergency (CHE). CDP maintains complete profiles on several CHEs. Every week, we highlight these and other CHEs, hoping to build awareness and increase philanthropic response. We are currently focusing our CHE updates on violence against women and girls.
Hurricane Melissa made the dire humanitarian crisis in Haiti even worse, particularly for women and girls, adding 16,000 displaced people to the 1.3 million already displaced by conflict. Violence against women and girls in Haiti has reached catastrophic levels in 2025, with armed gang control causing a surge in gender-based violence (GBV), notably sexual assault and rape. Experts are calling the crisis of sexual violence “endemic.”
Key facts:
- Around 72% of reported GBV cases involve sexual violence, much of it committed by gangs as a tool of intimidation and control.
- Access to sexual and reproductive health services is critically limited, especially in gang-controlled areas.
- Over 6,450 new cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) were reported between January and August 2025, a 34% increase compared to the same period last year.
- Nearly 50% of reported cases in this period were rape; armed gangs perpetrated about 75% of all documented incidents.
- Women and girls in displacement sites often resort to negative coping mechanisms, including transactional sex, due to a lack of food, water, and support.
- From January to October 2025, nearly 4,000 girls and women reported sexual violence, mostly committed by criminal groups; though numbers are estimated to be much higher due to underreporting.
- UN agencies confirm a 1,000% increase in sexual violence against children compared to 2024.
- Facilities in gang-controlled areas report receiving up to 40 rape victims per day during monthly surges.
- Almost all survivors lack meaningful protection, justice or recovery services — less than 10% receive needed assistance.
- Despite decades of international engagement and Haiti’s own constitutional commitment to gender parity in public office, women are entirely absent from the country’s transitional leadership, the experts noted.
The escalation in violence against women and girls, particularly sexual violence, is driven by the near-complete collapse of security and public services, resulting in rampant human rights violations and severely restricted access to lifesaving support for survivors. Urgent action must include expanding funding for survivor care, psychosocial support and comprehensive sexual and reproductive services.
What We’re Reading
- Hurricane Melissa Leaves Behind a Staggering Homelessness Toll in Jamaica – The New York Times
- Philanthropy’s Response to the Radical New Reality – Stanford Social Innovation Review
- Want to make America healthy again? Stop fueling climate change – The Conversation
A moment of hope… Climate-resilient breadfruit trees planted by the Trees That Feed Foundation are helping Jamaica recover from Hurricane Melissa. Despite the storm’s devastation, many of the 250,000 breadfruit trees planted through the program in Jamaica survived, demonstrating their ability to withstand extreme weather and offer food security.
The program, which has planted nearly half a million trees across 20 countries, not only feeds communities—estimated at 450 million meals over time—but also captures carbon and supports local economies.
Gina DeLuca
Content Development Associate
