Relief Ph

Four months ago, Super Typhoon Odette landed on our country, specifically on the Visayas and some parts of Mindanao and it left massive destruction to the locals of Leyte and Southern Leyte. I am from Southern Leyte and I have witnessed the destruction of Odette. It's been months already, yet, some parts of the affected provinces are still devastated. Others have settled on temporary housing due to a lack of resources for the reconstruction of all the damages.

We experienced a day of scarcity of food and water, gladly some agencies and organizations extended their hands to help us. Some houses were washed away, loss of livelihood, and the death of loved ones. Until now, electricity and unstable signal are a serious predicament in our province. There I could say, Southern Leyte, is not ready yet for another typhoon. We haven't recovered yet.

On Saturday, April 9, 2022, at around 2 p.m Typhoon Agaton landed in the vicinity of Eastern Visayas. The sound of the wind, the drops of rain, and the hustling of the surroundings are not far from what we've heard during Typhoon Odette. Truly it is very traumatizing. For people like me, who live away from their families, I cannot maintain my sanity because I am worried about how are they doing.

The next day, it is hard to reach on the news and the signal is very unstable. There were no electricity and water supply. The storm remained unstoppable for more than 10 hours already. On Sunday, electricity and water were restored in the afternoon. I got a call from my sister who's in Manila, she was also worried about me, since I was out of reach for a day. She told me about the devastating happenings in Baybay City, Leyte.

There were small towns that are covered with mud and that caused several losses of lives in that town of Baybay City. It is heartbreaking to see young children survive without a family. For sure, they are silently grieving for they have witnessed how their family was buried alive inside their houses. A recent report says that there are already 20 people who died in the landslide that happened. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing as more people are reportedly missing.

My heart was in great pain when I saw a post on Facebook about a family with 8 members, who drastically died during a landslide, and among them is a 3-year-old kid. May their souls rest in eternal peace.

Traveling also will be a problem in Southern Leyte as there are many breaking of roads and in my hometown, the upper part was closed as there is a part where the ground broke in two so, as of the moment it is not passable to any forms of vehicles.

I have thought of writing about the tragedy that happened in my beloved province for everyone to know that we are greatly in need of prayers. As of today, we still experience intermittent rains as another typhoon called Typhoon Basyang entered PAR today. Typhoon Agaton remains in the PAR with a very slow movement. Reports coming from different areas about landslide seems like no end, and the number of injured and deaths are increasing as time goes by.

The proceeds of this write-up will be donated to Baybayanons, they need it more than we do. It will be sent as a monetary donation to Discover Baybay City, they are targeting more than a hundred families to help may we also share a few of our blessings to people in need.

May God heal all wounds and give eternal peace to our brothers and sisters who passed away!

Pray for Southern Leyte and Leyte! Pray for the Philippines!

Thank you for your generosity.