November 7,2013
The Day Before Yolanda Strike Us
The forecast was out days before. We were expecting what’s
supposedly a strong typhoon. Thursday morning, it started to rain a bit, but I
still went out of the house to meet a woman somewhere.
After two hours of waiting for her, she arrived and said her
apologies and handed me a bag of dried fish. Something for the typhoon ,I
thought to myself. I couldn’t resist it so I took it. I know how delicious
dried fish can be on stormy days.
A few minutes after she left, I also started heading home.
There was a message for me from Red Cross Officer in charge Jennifer Chico
asking me to help them with a rush tarpaulin they would need for the typhoon. I
told her I don’t have access anymore since I was already home. I gave her Print
Options number instead.
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| This is how the streets looked like at noon. |
At home, everything was still normal. I keep worrying about
how big and strong the typhoon is going to be because I have been hearing news
about it being the world’s largest storm. I checked on my pantry. Canned goods,
check. Stored water, check. Candles,
good.I am ready. But it has stopped
raining and grew very hot. Scorching hot that most of us were really wondering
if the weather forecast was right. I thought, I don’t think a super typhoon is
coming when it is this hot. At about 4-5 pm, I saw on TV that we were on Signal
#4, and yet it was still calm, no strong winds, except for the occasional rain.
I checked on my sister where she would be staying because I was already waiting
for her since she initially said she’ll spend the night with us. She said
she’ll stay at her boyfriends’ house.
Night fell and the anticipation grew. Not that we were
excited over a strong typhoon but because we were anxious to have been prepared
and yet there was no sign of the Yolanda. I could not really work, so I tried
taking the Google Certification exam once more. Yikes! I failed at it
again. So I tuned in to an FM station and
wanted to know any update about the typhoon. I also started posting in my
Google+ profile and asked for prayers after reading other people’s post about
Typhoon Haiyan ( international name for Typhoon Yolanda).
Contrary to word of mouth info that the electricity would be
shut down at 12midnight, a lady representative of the Leyte Electric
Cooperative informed the public that
there is no truth to this report and would only terminate power supply once the
electric posts starts falling. I shared this information on my Facebook
wall.
Outside, nothing can be heard. There was an eerie calm, no
sound of the wind that was supposed to come with the storm. “Now this is what
they call ‘the calm before the storm’’, I said to myself. Then my helper said
to me, “I think I can hear the sound of the sea.” I told her, the sea is far from where we are.
But she was certain she could hear the sea, having been born in Tingib, a coastal
town of Samar.
And then the wind came. I can’t exactly recall what time it was but I started texting Sis Angel de Guzman- Ureta, my group leader of the
Intercessory Ministry of Feast Alabang. I said, “sis, I’d like to request a
prayer for protection for me and my family. It is starting to rain now.” And
she texted me back, “Just worship. God is there…”
I started to worship. Lying down. And when I ran out of
things to say in my mind, I switched on my cellphone and played worship songs.
I switched between playing worship songs to praying because I was trying to save
on my cellphone battery. And the only song I was able to sing over and over in
my mind was “How Great is Our God” by Hillsong. I prayed a silent prayer, “
Lord, cover me and my family, with the seal of protection, your Holy Cross.” As I
made the sign of the cross, I imagined a huge cross covering the whole building
and my family.)
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| Photo:quotespicture.com |
November 8, 2013
Yolanda (Haiyan) Is Here
I didn’t get any sleep. At around 2-3 am, the power went
out. I started to check on our door and pushed some furniture to keep it from
being opened in case the wind would be very strong. I also double checked if
the windows were sealed. In my bedroom where my kids were, I tried to seal it
with a sleeping mat because the wind was strong it was seeping through the
windows. I was afraid the jalousies will break.
And then more rain came. I forgot to secure the steel gate
that was protecting our door, so it was making a very loud banging noise. Around 4 am, me and my helper moved the
furnitures away from the window, since water was starting to seep into the
spaces of the window sill. There already was a big puddle of water in my living
room. My kids were starting to get wet also from the rain spraying so I tried
to cover all the windows with some bedsheets to prevent the water from directly
spraying the sleeping kids.
About 6 am, the noise outside grew louder. And water was
already shooting through the windows. The whole living room was already
showering with water and I was worried the rooftop was leaking. I was worried
the rooftop won’t hold much water, it might collapse so I asked my helper to
pack some clothes just in case. I was
still texting with my sister Arianne during these time as she was checking in
on us. Also, my children’s dad was also checking in on us. Her last text was,
“it’s a good thing you still have signal. Smart tower is already down.” That
was the last text I received, I couldn’t reply anymore.
By 7 am, in my bedroom, the wind already blew off my shield
against the water and the pressure was so strong I was afraid the windows would
break. So I evacuated my kids into the middle room with only one window. I
covered the window with a bedsheet again. Good thing there was a tall building
beside us, Accudata. Later on, we heard glass shatter. We peeked through the
windows and we could see that the glass wall of Accudata was broken. And then we looked down below and saw that
there was a flood that was about waist-high. We then went to the living room
and I tried to record everything through the window sill, we also saw the water
was already starting to rise up.
I went back to the room with my children as Matt was
starting to cry because of the loud noises outside. I told them to stay under
the blankets and gave them something to eat while they were under the blankets.
Water was also starting to splash inside the middle room so the blankets kept
them dry. The door to the bedroom was hard to open. The pressure was just too
much. My daughter Gabrielle said that it
was like being in an airplane. Their ears started to ache and I just told them
to chew on some biscuit. I agreed because I also felt the pressure in my ears.
Gabrielle did a good job entertaining her siblings under the blankets by
telling them stories.
And then my helper Melanie said, “It’s like we are in the
sea. I can see waves below.” I peeked again and true enough the water below was
ocean-like. But I had no idea of what was happening outside on the main road.
I could hear people shouting, some for help, others were
inaudible. I was frantically saying a prayer. And I was talking to God. I said,
“God, you said that you will never once again destroy the world with water.
Please hold on to your promise.” I continued praying, at the same time trying
to check on the kids. Good thing the jalousies didn’t break but just fell off
.The other room was already spilling water from outside, my mattresses were all
soiled. Good thing I was able to keep my laptop in my bag.
After what seemed like eternity, the wind stopped. And the
sky cleared a bit. We went outside to check the damages. I could see my
neighbors roofs, partially or totally damaged. I went to the rooftop to have a
clearer view, but all I could see were coconut trees partially bent, houses
without roofs and buildings with shattered glass walls.
Inside our unit was a total mess. Leaves strewn all over the
place, the walls, the ceiling and on the floor. It looked like it was part ot
the wall’s design. The wind inside our unit was everywhere. It kept turning in circles like a
tornado inside our house. The wind kept changing direction.
I could only see through the gap from the corner that some
people were rushing and that there were some that were carrying something. I
saw somebody pushing a wheelbarrow with a body in it. I hear my neighbor said
that there are dead people near People’s Center. I could not fully comprehend
why would there be dead people.
When I went down, the Brgy. Chairman’s wife asked how we
were and said, “You won’t see or feel what just hit us if you stay up there. Go
out into the corner and see the main road.” When we finally went there, only
then it became clear to me.
I saw the walls of San Fernando Elementary School all broken
down. There were piles and piles of debris everywhere. The street was muddy. People were shocked,
some were walking with stoic faces. Ocassionally, one or two person crying
would walk past us. Still, I could not
fully digest what was happening. I saw Ted Failon, a local news anchor walk
past us and people were talking to him. Everyone was confused, shocked.
After a couple of hours, my sister Arianne arrived with his
boyfriend and a friend. They looked so exhausted. When Arianne entered the
house, that’s when she said, “I thought I was going to die.”
Video from ABSCBN News Youtube Account
To be continued...
Please watch out for the rest of the story. I can't think of how to shorten it, because each detail is very important and will remain forever in our minds and hearts.
Keeping the faith,
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