Another Day...: Typhoon Yolanda...almost a year after (Part I)

Any natural calamity can break one's heart and spirit but we move on and move forward. To Rebuild. Body and Spirit.

Last year, 2013 November 8th, Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines, I was there. I experienced the whole thing..and here I am finally almost a year after; here is my short account of what I experienced. It helps to talk about it.

I was in the Philippines when Typhoon Yolanda hit on November 8th, 2013. We were warned about the verocity of this Strongest Typhoon ever to hit landfall. It was on the radio days before it was to hit landfall. The television was covering and tracking the storm. But we were never truly prepared for what we were to face. The preparation was immense, at least in our household. We had everything in place. It was terrifying to think that part of the island where I was will be badly hit and the eye of the storm with pass us. The anticipation was excruciating. One minute it was nice and sunny and no signs of any storm in the sky. Not even a gray cloud in sight that morning. Birds were oddly nowhere to be found or heard though. Something was imminently coming. The animals knew something ominous was before us. It was the proverbial, calm before the storm.

Inside the house, we were hudled in the western part of the old house, the portion that had survived several earthquakes and dozens of typhoons in the past. As we were standing in front of a glass sliding doors, we were checking that the cars were parked inside the open garage. Everyone were making last minute calls for friends outside of the Super Typhoon's area of responsibility. All our provisions and supplies that would last us for at least 5 days should electricity and water supply be cut off were in place. We had food, candles, matches, cooking gas and range, flashlights, batteries for our radios, our cellphones were fully charged and loads of bottled drinking water.

We all woke up to a bright and sunny day. The radio kept telling us the the immediate landfall of Typhoon Yolanda has landed in the Eastern part of the Philippines that morning. We were to brace ourselves of it for it will hit our side of the island at noontime. At 10am, I suggested we have an early lunch and be prepared for a blackout. The powerlines will surely be affected by the anticipated strong winds.

At 11am, the rain started. A little drizzle at first and then the strong winds came. It was coming from east. Strong and howling winds, trees were swaying and then the rain started to come down heavily.

Then exactly at 12noon, the lights went out! No electricity! We were bracing ourselves for the worst. This is it, we all said. So we switched to battery operated radios. I think that radio was on all day. Rain poured endlessly until 3pm. It never stopped. The sky was dark at this time. The wind velocity increased to an all time high, levels we have never seen before. My father even said, "I have been alive for 8 decades and have lived through dozens of typhoons but never like this". I was hugging my father for he was trembling. The water level was also starting to rise. The backyard was now knee deep in water. The house being close to a river have this for a disadvantage. The roads and sewage systems in our islands have no ryhyme or reason to them so people living close to the river have evacuated hours ago. The water level was constantly and steadily rising. It was scary. It rained and it poured some more. The flying debris of roof tops, tree branches, trees that were swaying hours before are now torn and uprooted, blocking and closing all roads and some branches were draped on electricity lines.Transformers on electricity posts were flashing and bursting, crackling with flashes of whatever electricity left on them. Streets were blocked. Mango trees, mahogany trees, and large acacia trees were down. Highways were closed. Not a soul in the street. The wind was still going more than 200miles per hour. The worst is yet to come.

I remember, all that time, not once was I able to sit down. We were moving to the top of the stairs, where we had relocated away from the glass sliding doow, by this time because the water has now completely covered our terraza floor in the backyard. Water inside the house got thigh-high. All cabinets were emptied on the first floor, appliances were on makeshift lifts raising them waist-high. I looked at the mark the last Typhoon Quinta made on the floor, it passed that make about half an hour ago.It was starting to look very bad. In every breath, I would say a silent prayer. There was no stopping the flood.

At 3pm, just like that, the rain and wind stopped. Not even a blade of grass was moving. The silence was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Absolutely nothing was moving. The wrath of the typhoon is not over yet! We were at this time, in the eye of the storm, the radio said. Calm and very quiet. Eerily quiet. Haunting silence. Time stood still as we did.

At by 4pm, the wind has changed direction it is now coming from the North East a 360degree change in pattern. The Typhoon is now in a different course. It was then that the real destruction began...the rain was pouring again and heavier this time, the wind carried with it water and dousing our windows with it as if taking buckets full of water and pouring it not only down but into the windows. By this time, water was now entering the 2nd floor of the house. The upper level floors of the house was now with water, meaning it was seeping in to our bedrooms. We scramble for towels and throw books that were on window panes on the bed to save them. Each one of us had to run to our own rooms and do the best we can to minimize potential water damage. We used towels and sheets to stop the water from entering through the door and plug windows with thick towels to stop seepage through the window panels. Even inside the house one can hear the howling of the wind through the hallways. It created a wind tunnel that made hairs on the back of my neck stand. I have never been this scared in my life ever. It was chillingly scary but we moved fast and not stop to think about anything.Just doing what needs to be done, NOW! All I remember saying to everyone was to stay away from the glass windows and doors. The last thing we need are injuries from broken and shattered glass. It was like that until 6pm. We sat down and rested for a little bit. I remember telling everyone in the house that we need to eat so we can stay up all night should the rain continue through the night. Everyone was tired, beyond exhaustion.

At 7pm, I remember having a big mug of coffee, I wasn't hungry. I was exhausted but not hungry. I was working on adrenalin by this time. Hunger was the last thing on my mind. I had my father eat his dinner and said he should try to get some sleep upstairs. I made him a cup of hot tea and said goodnight. I said don't worry tomorrow you wake up and all of this will be over. I said that with my finger's crossed. I prayed as I do every night that at least the casualties should be in the low numbers. People were warned. At least we were prepared.

At 8pm the rain and pounding wind stopped. Just like that.

We stayed up all night in fear that the water was still rising. It didn't. by 11pm the water started receding. That was the first time, I sat down and had my 2nd cup of coffee. I was exhausted. I wasn't able to sleep until around 7am the next morning.

The intensity of the wind was enough to tear galvanized sheets off the roofs of the homes of people's whose homes were built with light materials. Some of these sheets landed standing up on the front yard, coming from 3 to 4 houses west of the house. All the yard plants were submerged in water.

After a day, it was time to take stock of what was damaged. But after all things considered, we were lucky. A few minor damages on the house, plants and yard and some floor repairs, we were lucky.

We were able to survive the typhoon. The household was functioning again but sadly in some areas the damage was catastrophic that they had no electricity even months after the typhoon. People were without homes.

It was difficult to get to places and people you want to check on because there were no cellphone signals, no internet, no landlines for phones, no electricity - nothing. We were isolated for two days because the bridge over the river was damaged as well.

As soon as I was able to get around with transportation, I did what I could. Family and friends as well as strangers, came together to extend help the best way we know how, in our own little and simple ways.

Below are some of the pictures I took after the typhoon. Some photos are places we went to and helped out.

It was through the Yolanda Relief that I met some wonderful children and new friends. In the end, we are all in this together.

I focus on the positive here. Negativity never brought anything good to anyone. Especially not after a calamity of this magnitude.

For all those that had sent help to the Philippines for the Typhoon victims, I thank you. The scope of this calamity is mind-blowing and the world responded fast, with kindness and great heart.

A year after Yolanda we are still rebuilding and the scars on nature are still visible but we learn to live with the scars. Filipinos hopefully have learned something from this devastation. It will heal in time but the scars still remain and that is just a fact of life. We dust ourselves off and get up because crawling here is not an option. We get up and rebuild together.