I read from somewhere that what super typhoon Yolanda left in its wake was like a scene from a movie. I saw the pictures of the devastation and watched numerous television coverage of human hopelessness. I was moved. I was inspired to help.
But it is only after seeing in real life what I read and saw the ravaged landscape and the dazed people who experienced the horror of Yolanda's wrath that I truly understood the depth of what our people truly suffered.
On the night of November 17, when I was deployed in Daanbantayan, one of the hardest hit towns in northern Cebu, I already prepared myself for the journey with my Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. teammates. We were tired when we arrived, but we did not complain. There was just too much misery for us to bother whether we were full of vim and vigor or not.
As we drove around town, evidence of how strong the force of super typhoon Yolanda was all around us. Debris was just about everywhere. There was nothing to see except toppled electrical posts, fallen trees, and flattened homes. The wind badly battered the town, a scene repeated with aching monotony anywhere in northern Cebu as well as in Samar and Leyte, which I visited days later.
As school resumed that day, classes were held outside roofless rooms. Schoolchildren lined up chairs under the heat of the sun. Some residents were scavenging blown away galvanized iron sheets that could still be used to rebuild their houses. Some were making makeshift shelters.
While we were doing house-to-house assessment, a resident, one of the typhoon victims, graciously offered us two cups of noodles and a bottle of hot water. "Share your blessings lang gihapon ta Ma'am bisa'g nagdaginot," she said, smiling. I felt so blessed by the gesture.
We finished the assessment around six in the evening. There was no power. The world was pitch black. Except for the crickets, there was deafening silence. All I could feel was the cold touch of the wind. A man in his forties approached me and tapped my shoulder. "Ma'am, ayaw tawn mi og kalimti og balik ha," he said. I was touched. I was teary-eyed, but I did not show it.
I was deployed in Leyte and Eastern Samar a week later. This time, I was apprehensive. I was sure that the place I once visited would be unrecognizable.
The sight of Tacloban City was really depressing. If northern Cebu was battered, this city was wrecked and mangled. Roofless structures dotted the entire city; the roofs lay everywhere like discarded pieces of crumpled paper. The city was a horrid landscape of damaged buildings and completely defoliated trees.
Driving to Palo, we saw the overwhelming damage. I thought I had seen enough, but I never saw in my entire life a catastrophe of such magnitude. It was like a warzone where bombs were dropped to wipe out the population. This is a nightmare, a small voice in my head kept telling me. Debris was scattered everywhere. There were fallen trees and toppled posts along the roads, and the trees still standing did not have a single twig on them.
In Palo alone, 1,085 died and 92 were still missing. Some of the dead, including babies, were buried in mass graves.
Some cars were found several meters away from where they were parked-in a neighbor's backyard, or even in a coconut grove. Two ships were washed ashore by strong waves.
The towns of Tanauan, Dulag, and Tolosa in Leyte were also severely hit by the typhoon's strong winds and the resulting storm surges. The water, according to locals, reached as high as five meters. Most of the houses in the coastal barangays of these towns were washed away.
In Guiuan, Eastern Samar, where the typhoon made landfall first, the storm surge laid bare the roots of large trees. I saw the same desolation in the towns of Lawaan and Hernani. They did not just deal with ferocious winds but also with the violent storm surges.
People in Leyte and Samar are used to typhoons, even the strong ones like Uring and Ruping, but Yolanda brought utter destruction to their lives and livelihood. My heart bled for them. I died each day I was there. It would take long for Samar and Leyte to get back on their feet.
Yolanda will be a name forever remembered by Filipinos. It will forever be etched in the memories of people, especially those who suffered great loss.
Now, I fully understand the unswerving commitment of RAFI and other humanitarian organizations to help the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda. It is because they, in their core, have a heart that truly cares for and feels their pain.