As I can remember the flash flood that happened in Ormoc, because we were living 7 to 10 kilometers away from the city proper near the seashore, I was so shocked because I thought that there was a ship that sunk because of the so many dead bodies piled up in our backyard. When somebody told us that there was a flash flood, I was so scared because that somebody also told us that tidal wave will follow and because of the word “tidal wave” all members of the family immediately rode our small boat. We were so confused and asked ourselves, “Why is it that the boat did not move?” All of us laughed because of that incident and because we do not know what to do, we paddled our boat and rode on it on a sandy area not on the sea. We went back inside our house full of fear and don’t even know what to do next. Then we heard a cry because he found his loved one dead. I got out from our house and saw people crying embracing the dead bodies of their loved ones. I also saw dead body of a mother embracing her child and breastfeeding it. This mother showed that she loved and cared for her child even at the last breathes of her life. I was so sad and touched in that scenery. We thanked God that we were safe and prayed to God that people who were emotionally disturbed can overcome those feelings that they felt on that day.
We experienced difficulty in transportation because the road was full of mud, thrashes, logs and some parts of the house were scattered on the road. We walked 7 to 10 kilometers in order to go to the market and bought something to eat. Our life was really very hard during those days.
Maria Gina A. Tagalog
1991 FLASH FLOOD
Yolanda is the most destructive calamity that struck us all and left traumatic memories in my life. When Yolanda came, at first we felt that we were safe and saved, so many neighbors of ours went inside our house to seek shelter because their houses were destroyed by Yolanda at the first attack of it. But when the wind struck again it was very, very strong and I saw my father trying to control the wind by pushing our door because by that time I saw what happened if father have let go of the wind, it will have easily crumpled our house into pieces. I helped my father and our neighbors but all our forces were not enough, we failed to control the wind not to enter our house, we let go because we felt the pain in pushing. As soon as the wind entered our house, the door blew away and hit us. The wind seemed to have life that hits us all. I felt the wind was so angry that crumpled our roof, threw away our doors, and destroyed our wall. Elders and small children, I let them hid under our lavatory to make them safe because at that time all of us were in panic; where to go and what to do. I even saw my neighbor fell down because of the big piece of wood that hit her back. All of us cried for help. We prayed to God and asked Him, “Why did he punish us? Are we that so bad and that He would hurt us this much?”
We prayed, we did not give up, we still had hope. All of us inside the house prayed the rosary and my father who was a lay minister, a servant of God, said that time, “God does not punish man. He will just test how strong we are”. After that we asked God’s forgiveness of that thought and Yolanda seemed to listen. Thank God we were still alive and continued to struggle for life.
Maria Gina A. Tagalog
TYPHOON YOLANDA
