Two Sleepless Nights And On Standby

Classes were suspended before the landfall of Typhoon Paeng, so I have a lot of time to rest at home. I woke up late in the morning, and got a bunch of messages in my messenger as I opened it. They were talking about the one who will volunteer to be on duty at the safehouse of the rescuers. The expected landfall was at the afternoon and the safehouse were asking 10 people to help at the operation.

I badly wanted to go but they said that they were only looking for boys. I just set my schedule to write more that day instead and be safe on my room. A little while later, they submitted the list and there were girls also, but the team was already complete, so I can't have a chance anymore. Few minutes passed before the call time, my Instructor messaged me, asking why I didn't go. I told him that they were already complete and I have a lot of work to do. Yet, he insisted and I agreed in the end. I went there traveling in heavy rains and fortunately, I have arrived safely.

We were given instructions of what to do if we were called to respond. We got ourselves ready, just in case we would have a call from the radio transmitter. The class marcher also have divided us to be on duty. Every two hours, there was a certain group who will be vigilant and keep the team updated to what's currently happening. The one's on duty would be awake during the period and the rest would sleep for a while. Luckily, there was a lots of stocks of coffee in the safehouse. I was like making a cup for thrice at night.

Here's an incident check form to list down the possible incidents that may happen during the rage of the respond and wherein we were going to respond. Gladly, we don't have something to put in that sheet since we haven't been called by the DRRMO to help them in the operations. It was also good to know that the situations are under control of the authorities.

Coffee, food, and a radio was on the table on the whole operations. My other team mates were a bit excited to join the operations and rescue the people that were affected by the typhoon. They were eager and hyped to watch out on every transmissions that we were receiving on the radio, then get disappointed when it was for another team, not for us.

A night have passed and we were still not called to respond. The DRRMO have handled the situation well, that they didn't asked for our help. However, we still stayed for another since the typhoon signal wasn't lifted yet. We also didn't got a call from the city hall that we could now terminate the team from the operations.

Under the dim lights since some were sleeping on the floor, we still executed the same pattern of duties until the morning. It was another sleepless night for us again and another non-stop transmissions from different hotlines all over the city. And still, we didn't a call.

The next morning, we already had a permission to terminate the team from the operation. After asking permission to leave the safehouse and have heard a lot of instructions from the instructors, we can finally go home. Though we didn't get to witness and act on the real scenarios of the operations, we still have learned a lot. We created memories and a bond that surely will last.

There's another typhoon to watch out for even though Paeng have left the country. Stay safe always, everyone!

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