In a one-storey school building, 120 people died in Tacloban, Leyte island, where they thought they would be safe. Just one of the sad tales of a catastrophic storm that hit the Philippines.
In Palo, also in Leyte, residents from one evacuation center that was soon destroyed struggled to survive from the storm surge as sea water flooded the first storey of a school in the same town. There they joined other residents to climb and take refuge at the second floor with some GMA-7 media men who gave relief goods they had carried to the place.
“It sounded like a 747 plane had passed us,” said Agusto Corro, mayor of Daanbantayan, Cebu. The typhoon, he said was so strong, “It shook the building.”
Jiggy Manicad, one of the correspondents from a GMA-7 team, described their ordeal in a building that was “shaken like a washing machine.”
The recent data about Yolanda (or Haiyan its international name) cited by Agence France Presse claims it packed sustained winds of 315 kph and gusts of 379 kph. (See its path on the picture following this link: https://twitter.com/PhilippineStar/status/400089518872596481/photo/1/large) Volunteer social media groups of United Methodists for UMC-Phl News Team are keeping churches posted of denominational and ecumenical developments in disaster relief and response initiatives.
The scenes after the typhoon hit the Visayan islands were common to reports of strong typhoons and hurricanes in recent years: fallen trees stripped of their bark, crumpled iron roof sheets that had flown from different places as winds took them away from houses and buildings, and even totally wiped out houses or mere concrete ruins no longer habitable.
One video showed what looked like a gymnasium or a roof covered basket ball court. It had no more roof and it looked just like wire crumpled by hand.
In Medellin, Cebu, one woman who survived the onslaught by Yolanda said, “It felt like the end of the world.” One story reported, “Super-Typhoon Haiyan is almost like Katrina and Sandy combined.”
On the good news, “We praise God for His bountiful provisions!” Bishop Rudy Juan posted on social media. “GBGM approved the release of $97,000.00 through UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief) for relief and rehabilitation of people who are devastated by super typhoon Yolanda.”
Juan told the churches in the Philippines, “Bishop Hee Soo Jung gladly relayed this good news to us, Filipino bishops.” Bishop Juan along with Bishops Ciriaco Francisco and Pedro Torio, Jr. were attending a meeting of the United Methodist (UMC) Council of Bishops at Lake Junaluska, N.C.
A flood of donations has also been reported and church members over social media could not help express hope that these will go to the people who need it for real. Fears come from the background of months of news and commentaries about misused public funds.
“I hope and pray that these amounts (donated for the Philippine victims of Yolanda) will go to the people who are really in need…not to the politicians,” said Exodus Granadosin, a Filipino doctor now residing in the US and a son of UMC Bishop Paul Locke Granadosin. He urged fellow church members to donate to the UMCOR, the official relief agency of the denomination.
“I’ve chased nothing like this before,” James Reynolds described the recent super typhoon. Agence France Presse said Reynolds’ day job is capturing pictures and videos of typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions “at heart-stoppingly close range.”
Reynolds told AFP, “This was just totally off the scale both in terms of the violence of the storm and then the human tragedy, the consequences of such a powerful natural event hitting a city of 200,000 people.” Reynolds’ experience with taking pictures and videos of strong storms made him choose hotels with strong concrete structures that can keep standing upright.
He said it is necessary to ensure that it is “elevated to avoid being caught in the storm surge,” which commonly floods the vicinity after a strong storm makes landfall. Local media men had such stories indeed keeping the doors of their hotel rooms closed while Yolanda’s winds pounded the place.
The age of super typhoons the country has not seen before has come to the Philippines. Yolanda has initiated the country with devastating winds and storm surges like it came from a tsunami. The people are only next realizing the staggering consequences.
Inquirer.net freshly posted Tuesday as of this writing, “Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, describing Tacloban City: “Death on the roads, no electricity, no food and water, and people walking on the streets like zombies, looking for food.” He advised those with relatives in Tacloban to, “Take them out of there… you can’t get anything there, not even a piece of candy.”
People crowded the Tacloban airport hoping to get flown out of there. The nightmare of the super typhoon experience will cause many to lose hope after the place is cleared. Uncertainty and the fear of continuing vulnerability in days to come will cause them to wallow in despair. Social workers and counselors are needed in the devastated sites.
Many will opt to leave Leyte and the other devastated areas. And no doubt, something like this can happen again in this country because typhoons pass here often as a natural event.
Every Filipino will be asking government where people will go if another Yolanda-like typhoon comes. Which evacuation centers can be identified safe with such a typhoon? There is doubtfully a house or a building built to be safe much less to last in a typhoon like Yolanda.
Just a few months before, though, people in Batanes at the tip of the Philippines experienced Odette a category 4 typhoon. Most frequented by storms, houses there have very small windows and all with thick stone walls. Yet Nathaniel Cruz, GMA-7 resident meteorologist and weather analyst, said Batanes was devastated. Unfortunately the recent Odette interlude was not well highlighted as part of conditions to weigh safety preparations.
UMC-Phl News Team received some report from the UMC Davao Episcopal Area, gathered from district superintendents Roy Tibalbag of Western Visayas District and Dave Cosmiano of Eastern Visayas on the prevailing conditions in their area after typhoon Yolanda. Part of the Visayas Philippines Annual Conference, around 200 families belonging to the church faced the threats of Yolanda along with the rest of the Visayan landscape.
Communication, the church superintendents said, is mainly through text messages as calls still cannot get through and internet service is down. Bishop Francisco echoed their report for the Davao Episcopal Area and told United Methodist News Service, “They need food, water, shelter and of course, the prayers of the people.”
They say power is not expected to resume anytime soon. Several local church buildings in Leyte, Panay, Aklan and Capiz were damaged. Homes of church members were destroyed. They have no confirmed reports of fatalities among UMC members so far.
Despite official government reports of deaths at 250, local officials estimate this could go up to more than 10,000 as conditions are verified in places yet unreached. But President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday it is closer to 2,000 or 2,500 than 10,000.
Cruz stretching the recent picture of super typhoons said what if Yolanda moved slower than 40 kph (like Ondoy) and moved at 15 kph with the same devastating winds of 315 kph and gusts of 379 kph staying much longer than it did?
Typhoons are a natural occurrence on earth just like birth, walking, running, and dying. It’s not there to take a candy away from anyone. Filipinos have lived with it since their ancestors came to the islands. Seeing what has come with Yolanda, Cruz said, “We should be thankful if predicted typhoons don’t hit us as reported.”
In the meantime, a full assessment of disaster statistics across Yolanda’s path is yet forthcoming as roads and communications are restored to reach and get in touch with the affected areas.
Whether their courage is good or bad in the face of a menacing storm, Filipinos will learn to live with the worst of it in years to come. It’s their country.
easylynksfilesearl1901 
