Do you still remember where you were when one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded made landfall in the Philippines in November 8, 2013?
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Bagyong Yolanda, internationally known as Tropical Storm Haiyan, is a category 5 typhoon. With more than three hundred kilometers per hour of sustained winds, this super typhoon is said to be the deadliest of its kind.
I slept through the storm in our home in Cebu. There was no electricity so there was no way of knowing the extent of damage the super typhoon has brought right there and then. It was only days after that I learned how this wrath brought thousands of people to their demise.
I was working in the corporate back then with a promising career as an engineer. A year after the typhoon struck, the badly hit communities in Eastern Visayas have barely recovered. It was then that I was offered a job in a developmental organization in Tacloban. I decided it was time for me to break away from the corporate world and join the non-profit workforce with a job that helps rebuild the lives of those who have been scarred by that disastrous event.
My time in Tacloban was simply the toughest days of my life. The downtown where I lived was laced with debris and ruins of the storm even after more than a year since it happened. There were homeless people everywhere and there's a big chance they've lost their families too. I've met a lot of people who were still suffering from post traumatic stress and they do not have access to psychological support. Whenever I talk to people, I can feel the pain coming from their accounts of that horrible experience. Every time someone starts telling me how they'd lost their belongings or their loved ones, I'd do my best to act strong and supportive when deep inside it was crushing me to the core.
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Two things greatly appalled me about what happened months and years after the super typhoon. First is the government's poor delivery of rehabilitation services and their downplaying of the intensity of the impact. Mass media still round down the death numbers to 6000 when the local count in Eastern Visayas alone shows ten thousand. This for me is sheer injustice to the urban poor that become unaccounted for because of non-existent census in informal settlements. The second thing that appalled me is the influx of international NGOs who despite their pure will to be of help and have undoubtedly played the bigger role in rehabilitation, often stay sitting on the backs of their high horses by driving around in their flashy four-by-fours in city roads and renting only the most expensive hotels for their staff. I know that these big shot organizations have rules to comply with but for me, it's ironic to park a shiny, newly bought Ford right next to a packed community of bunk rooms that housed four families in one roof.
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My dislike towards slow government action and towards the lavish lifestyles of developmental workers led me to promising to myself to live frugally and to blend among the local Taclobanons and get a full grasp of the impact of the typhoon and what my organization can do for the community.
It was because of this pact to connect to locals that I have met people with first-hand stories of their Yolanda experience. Out of the many people I have met, I have hand-picked three people whom I know have made a great difference in their little way. Friends, I would like you to meet the unsung heroes of Yolanda.
Lady Soldier, Hero of the Infants
It was a lazy afternoon at the office when one of the staff called me because there was a visitor. A woman in her thirties carried a toddler in her arms and studied the murals painted on our office driveway. I barely noticed her at first with her pony-tailed hair but then she introduced herself and I instantly knew who she was.
Army Corporal Ann Janette Obligado was a lady soldier who went to Tacloban to check on her family days after the typhoon. Her family was alive but their properties were damaged. After quickly checking on them, she went back to their airport to catch a flight to Manila. It was at the Tacloban airport that she found a woman has just given birth to a baby three days after the typhoon hit. The poor mother drenched in blood couldn't provide breast milk for the baby as she too was hungry and thirsty. During that time, the lady soldier has just given birth to her three-month old daughter Mary Olive and was lactating. She fed the newborn child and then later on found herself feeding a couple more babies at the airport.
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When our office was built a year after Yolanda, our driveway wall was turned into a mural. Army Corporal Obligado is one of the murals as we consider her a hero. When she visited that afternoon, she told me that she has always wanted to see the mural. I was truly humbled by that visit and greatly honored to be in the presence of a lady soldier who has done a remarkable act in a very desperate time.
So That The Public May Know
The water level has risen in an alarmingly fast rate. It's something she has never experienced before. The water was murky and was carrying a lot of debris. When it got overhead, she and her colleagues started floating around but she was fortunate enough to find something to grab on. She embraced a metal beam on the ceiling holding on for dear life until the water subsided. She made it through the storm and the water surge but her colleagues didn't make it.
That is similar to how Lisa (real name withheld for confidentiality) would tell her Yolanda story. I know I don't do it any justice compared to how she tells it but you get the idea of how struggling it is to hold on for dear life. Lisa is really a skinny underweight girl who was then working as a journalist in Tacloban. When we met, she was studying to become a lawyer and for a few months, we even became roommates.
Despite warnings from the government, Lisa never left the building where she worked as a radio broadcaster for an AM station. She stood her ground that whatever happens she will continue broadcasting so that the people may know what exactly was going on outside. The power has already been cut off and only battery-operated radios and broadcasting stations with their own generators were able to transmit important information.
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The first time Lisa showed me the ruins of that broadcasting station, I couldn't believe she survived that terrible damage done by the storm surge. Their building was literally meters away from Cancabato bay which was where the storm surge originated. Lisa's courage to continue providing public service even if it costed her life is not the only reason why I consider her an unsung hero of Yolanda. After the typhoon, she continued writing about the survivors and the horrible situation they were in considering poor rehabilitation services and almost no access to a decent livelihood.
Water is Life
Jasper (real name withheld for confidentiality) owns a few minor businesses in downtown. In fact, his businesses are so small and kept that very few people knew he was running a water filtration and refilling services in his next door neighboring apartment. He is one I would consider a "prepper". He knows how to respond to medical emergencies, how to conduct a rescue in various situations, and knows how to reduce the risk in a disastrous situation. That was why before Yolanda happened, he has stocked up on supplies and consumables and thought that he has prepared himself and his family for the worse. Jasper is an instructor in certain fields and he teaches people how to respond in emergency situations. However, the super typhoon was none like any that he has experienced before and it has put his skills to a test.
With the water rapidly rising, his family was trapped in the second floor of their home and all hope was quickly diminishing. Fortunately, the water did subside almost as swiftly as it rose but leaving behind the ruins of the strong raging surge. Commercial establishments were all washed up, there was no trade and people were looting whatever they can from malls and grocery stores. It was anarchy. Like I said, very few people knew that Jasper had a refilling station. He, however knew most of the people from their neighborhood so he rationed the drinking water he had with priority to families with elderly and babies. He turned the store of one of his businesses into a volunteers' hub where people can donate and offer services to help those who still weren't able to recover. They offered a wide-range of support to their fellow survivors from tents to medicines and food.
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Jasper continues to give back to the community by conducting training on disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and responding to emergency situations. This hero did not only help others immediately after the storm but also provides empowerment to those who want to help in non-profit charitable work.
The stories that have risen after Yolanda are stories of resilience that have shaped the spirits of thousands of survivors. In a tough situation like this, anyone can become a hero but only a few are celebrated. At the end of the day, it is the life that is entrusted to us that we must be most grateful of.
!steemitworldmap 11.246715 lat 125.010335 long Cancabato Bay, Tacloban City, Philippines d3scr
Thank you for your time!
Cheers,
@xaydtrips