It was almost 8 p.m., and the wind was howling outside our window. I was worried that the big Gmelina tree next our house would fall on our house, so I was always staring out the window, while my mother prayed the rosary and my sister (@erikathedrama) sat on the floor on standby mode.

_{The Gmelina tree that we thought would destroy our house}

My father was monitoring our second floor when we heard a loud bang that shook our house; something flew and landed on our second level. I, along with my mother and sister, dashed to the back door, shouted, and called my father, who was on the second floor, thinking he had been hit by the falling object. Thank God, we saw him from the stairwell; he was holding our wall that was going to rip off. A large limb of a mango tree landed on our second floor (yep, it was a mango tree which is a bit far from our house, not the Gmelina tree next to our house, that damaged our house; imagine how strong the wind was). My mother, sister, and I sheltered behind a little wall at the rear door, hoping to persuade our father to evacuate to our cousin's house (a safer house in front of ours). While he was holding the wall, my father told us to gather our belongings and go to our cousin's house. My relatives were already there, and we were all 17 at the time. I was trembling when I requested my cousins to get my father from our residence, they bolted. When I realized they hadn't returned, I dashed to our house to summon my father.

We became concerned as the river began to rise around 9 p.m. We attempted to flee to the barangay hall across the street, but the wind was too powerful. We returned to my cousin's house and stayed on the second floor, but the house was shaking due to the heavy wind, so we prayed the rosary and one of my cousins called to tell us that she had made it to the barangay. We then proceeded batch by batch, but when it came to the last batch (my mama, sister, 2 cousins, and me), the wind blew even worse, and we were stranded at our neighbor's house for about an hour. When the wind calmed down, we crossed the street and hurried to the barangay hall; my mother even tripped over a GI sheet that had landed on the street.

_{Evacuation Area}

_{Evacuation Area}

My uncles, father, and some of my cousins (boys) stayed at my cousin's house to assist my uncle, who is unable to walk alone, while we (the girls) stayed at the barangay hall till 3 a.m., and then returned to our cousin's house to sleep when we saw the app that Odette had finally left Cebu.

AFTER THE STORM

We woke up so early to check on our house and this is what we saw. This is sooo devastating, our home for 25 years is gone 😭.

_{Front View of our Second Floor}

_{Right Side of our House where our room is located}

_{Second Floor Living Room}

_{First Floor Living Room}

_{First Floor near our Back Door}

_{My Graduation Picture}

_{Our Kitchen}

We immediately cleaned up and went through our belongings to see what we could save.

I even fell down the steps while attempting to lift a large box.

Our filthy garments were washed (the water from our faucet is still running till 3 days after the storm)

We've been cleaning our belongings up until now. My cousin's residence is where we are presently sleeping.

Every night, we have to fetch water from our neighbor's house so that we can have a bath before heading to work. We all eat together under the shade of a ring light.

I charge our devices and flashlights at the office, and I walk from work to home because public transportation is always overcrowded in the afternoons. We have to literally go back to square one, We don't have an option but to continue forward; we're just grateful that we're all alive and well.

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