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Eight years ago yesterday, supertyphoon Yoland or Haiyan hit the country leaving a lot of dead people and massive damages. What I remember is that, the river in our place didn't made its way to the houses. There were no floods but there are strong winds that made the coconut trees sway until the topmost part hits the ground. The wind was strong that it uprooted the trees too. Nature's wrath could be felt and it seemed like through its strong winds, it wanted everything, plants and human beings that are standing to bow down and beg mercy to him.
The typhoon wasn't that destructive in our area. Our neighbor even joked if it was really a supertyphoon because he said that there was no challenge. Later did we know that people from Tacloban were the ones who suffered a lot. Apparently, storm surge wasn't explain that much and people were not informed properly and so they were not prepared. The massive storm surge wash away houses, cars and even buildings. People were found dead and a lot were missing too. More than 6,000 were declared dead and there were still people who were missing.
The place smelled of dead people and animals back then and debris of the buildings are everywhere. The people has nowhere to stay because their houses were washed away too and if not it was filled with water. It was really a difficult time for the people there. Meanwhile, in our province, Southern Leyte, the electricty was out for months and we made use of crude oil to light our lamp which was very expensive during that time. Foods were very scarce also during that time because the local stores were hoarding their supplies because they were afraid that they might not have something to eat the next month. When people beg them to sell something they would sell it in a very high and unfriendly price. It seemed like people were looking after what they can stored to have something to eat back then.
Our neighbor who has a brother from Tacloban was spared of the calamity. He even visited his sister which is our neighbor and even brought plenty of blankets and house supplies that they got from stealing. Some people there took advantage of the malls that were devastated by the typhoon. Security guards were nowhere to be found so they sneak into the mall's stores and grab what they can get.
The roads from Tacloban to our place was unpassable too. Our neighbor's brother told us that the Tacloban was really in dire need of help and the place smelled of dead people. And these dead people were not given a proper burial since some of the dead bodies couldn't be identified. So people made use of mass graves.
Despite that, help from outside the country came in. Different foreign countries extended their help as soon as the news spread what happened. Today, after eight years, Tacloban is now booming and recovering from that painful past but the lost lives are still remembered.
Thanks for reading! Until then.
Ang sakit-sakit sa dibdib ang makabasa o makarinig kapag tungkol sa ganitong mga pagbaha. 😔 pero kahit papano natututo na tayong mga Pilipino kapag may ganyang nga bagyo. Mahina man o malakas ang bagyo, hindi tayo dapat nakakampante.
Ako gusto ko ang ulan at isa ako sa nagsasabi na mahina lang ang bagyo na parang hindi bagyo. Pero alam ko yung mahina sa amin ay malakas sa ibang lugar. Grabe na kasi talaga nadudulot ng bagyo hindi lang sa atin pati na din sa ibang parte ng mundo. Climate change is real.