Ormoc Tragedies

Ormoc Tragedies

Yolanda is a very sweet lady name but it always reminds us of a dark and frightful event of a lifetime. November 7, 2013 was declared as no class day but it was sunny and the sky was so clear. Our neighbor was so busy nailing the roofing sheets while us, with my family was talking in the terrace discussing the possibility of the movement of the wind as we are monitoring the PAGASA news. On November 8, 2013 at exactly five o’clock in the morning we were all awaken by the strong gustiness of the wind. We immediately pull my mother’s “Waling-waling” orchids where it was hang. We hurriedly get all of the orchids but it was to our dismay because as I remember it took us 5 minutes to retrieve the Waling-waling orchids, but there were still a lot of Vanda orchids outside. My son was shouting hysterically when he was pulling the window but he cannot lock the barrel bolt because he was only nine years old and his strength was weakened because of his fear. The wind was so strong that our ceiling board was waving and trembling and the window’s glass banging. I can hear sounds like a rolling boulder over our ceiling boards for 5 hours. My heart was aching when my son was praying to God to spare and protect us because he wants to live longer because he is still too young to die. At exactly 12:00 o’ clock, we went outside and to our surprise nobody was spared of the wrath of Typhoon “Yolanda”. The picture above was taken 1 month after. The whole roofing sheets were blown. Every day I was crying because my body was aching from mopping, cleaning, drying and worst was walking from our house to the city to buy for our sustenance almost every day and having no dry place to sleep. It was an event that I’m trying to erase, the dark memories, and help myself to be strong and resilient not only for myself but for my family and for my son who was traumatized of what he experienced.

Derle P. Romo
TYPHOON YOLANDA