‘My dog saved me’

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Nine months’ pregnant Rose Ann Alberto thought the end was at hand when an eight-meter-high storm surge destroyed her house in Barangay 37 in Tacloban City at the height of Typhoon Yolanda last Nov. 8.

The family of the 19-year-old was able to evacuate to a second floor of a neighbor’s house, but the strong winds and torrential rains forced the water to rise up quickly to the second floor, trapping all of them on the ceiling.

Her father urged them to pray because if the water continued to rise, they would all drown.

But the strong winds lashed the house for hours starting at 5 a.m., and tore off the roof, forcing Rose Ann and her parents, siblings and their brown dog “Lea” to cling on to the roof as it floated on water. There was zero visibility.

“I clung on to a broken wooden beam for two hours until our dog, Lea, appeared from nowhere,” Rose Ann said in the Waray dialect.

“As the current carried me toward the sea, Lea swam around me as if looking for something to help me with. She finally managed to get my collar into her mouth and pulled me back toward the shore where I found a large broken wood beam until papa (father) saw me,” she said.

Her father Ronnie brought her to where her mother Riza and brother Rensy were clinging to debris floating on the water.

As the onslaught of Yolanda subsided at about 9:30 a.m., Ronnie was still looking for his three missing children who luckily were able to seek shelter at another house.

After the typhoon, the Alberto family along with other survivors stayed at the city port where Ronnie works as a helper.

Although his family was already safe, Ronnie was worried about their dog Lea, which had been with them for the past three years. He could not accept the possibility that their dog was gone.

Ronnie could not help but cry after seeing cadavers floating on the water and his heavily destroyed neighborhood in the aftermath of the storm.

Luckily, amid the ruins of their town, another survivor told the Alberto family that the dog Lea was seen inside the chapel of San Roque, patron saint of the community.

As Ronnie arrived at the chapel, he started to call out Lea. To his great joy, the hero dog slowly crawled out of the chapel, making crying sounds until she found him.

Ronnie carried the dog through the road strewn with debris until they reached his family’s temporary shelter at the city fish port.

Six days later, Ronnie again had to walk through the road from the port to Rizal Street where decomposing cadavers lay, just to reach the command post of a rescue team because Rose Ann complained of birth pains.

Paramedics brought Rose Ann to the East Visayas Regional Medical Center. The following day she gave birth to a baby girl.

Rose Ann said she likes the baby’s name “Yolanda.”

“I thanked God for helping us survive this typhoon but above all for giving back Lea to us,” Rose Ann added.

“It was a miracle we survived,” Ronnie said.

Armless Fil-Am pilot sends condolences

The story of the Alberto family is a tale about the resiliency and strength of Filipinos.

Filipino-American pilot Jessica Cox – who holds the Guinness world record for being the first armless person in aviation history to earn a pilot’s certificate – said the same resilience and strength which she is fortunate to have from her Filipino roots would help Yolanda victims get through the challenges ahead.

Cox sent her condolences to all the typhoon victims that include some of her family.

Cox’s mother is from Guiuan in Eastern Samar, where Typhoon Yolanda first made landfall. One of her grandaunts was among the more than 5,000 people who lost their lives during the typhoon that also displaced some other family members.

Cox said she last saw her relatives in Samar when she and her husband, Patrick, visited in February.

“We visited Samar before and it was gorgeous,” said Cox, showing Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia Jr. a photo she and her husband took on their last trip to the Philippines.

Cox wrote in the Book of Condolences for those who lost their lives in the typhoon, saying she believes her fellow Filipinos can transcend challenges brought about by Yolanda.

Cuisia, for his part, said the typhoon victims, particularly those who lost arms or legs as a result of their injuries, should draw strength and inspiration from Cox.

“Jessica has risen from adversity and can definitely inspire our people, especially those who are experiencing adversity as a result of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in the Central Philippines,” Cuisia said after Cox offered to help typhoon victims during a recent visit to the Philippine embassy in Washington.

“Although she was born without arms, Jessica never allowed her condition to limit her – she attained a college degree in psychology, earned a black belt in taekwondo and learned to drive with her feet, play the piano with her toes and fly an airplane,” he added.

The Arizona-based Cox, who was in Washington to attend a Senate committee hearing on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, has delivered numerous inspirational speeches around the world and is an advocate for rights of persons with disabilities.

Cox has been working with Handicap International, a non-government organization that supports people with disabilities and vulnerable populations and has been present in the Philippines since 1985.  – With Pia Lee-Brago