I had this blogsite years before the typhoon, I never really wrote anything in here.
I am a Property Agent, been living my 32 years of existence here in this City. I have at least seen the progress and how progressive it have become today.
Before the typhoon struck Tacloban, of course, everything as always was pretty normal. Businesses are coming in. Buildings rising. Call Centers, malls,foodchains..a whole lot of them.
And still,I was always as busy, doing day to day routines, working out to make ends meet. I forgot to appreciate the beauty of life, struggling daily to earn & enjoy the convenience money brings.
Me, my family & relatives live here at Brgy. Manlurip, San Jose, Tacloban City.
I was here when Typhoon Haiyan struck. We were here.
Inside our house, its a 3-door house like an apartment. At Door 1, was my grandmother (86 yrs. old), 2 aunts,and my eldest daughter (11 yrs. old). Door 2, me, my husband, & daughter (6 yrs. old). At Door 3, my nephew & a family friend.
We've been listening all week about the coming typhoon. Everybody was talking about it. But we didn't seem to care so much about it. We were just too bc about our daily routines. I have listened to the news, everybody was saying its the strongest typhoon to ever hit anywhere in the world! And yet, we remained calm, not really because we seem to know what to do, but we were thinking that its not going to happen at that range of winds, we were just too sure it will be just another strong typhoon, the same with other typhoons we experienced here.
Monday morning, my mom called, she said, go find a hotel, stay there from Wednesday till Sunday, until typhoon is over. I just said, nah, we'll just stay here. And its gonna cost us a lot of money, we have to pay for school tuition for finals & enrollment too for the 2nd semester for my kids. I said, we'll be fine here.
Thursday came. Reporters were here. CNN anchor was here! I thought, oh my, this must be it. Then, as usual, we prepared, we bought groceries, flashlight, water, medicines that day!
On the evening, we listened to the news, the whole world was waiting!!!
At Door 1, I covered the windows with sacks from rice, inserted through the grills, another window we covered with a wooden bed frame, tied into the grills.after they locked the door they put tables & chairs at the door.
At Door 2,after I locked the door, we put a rattan made sofa on our door, with an oven & gas tank on top of it.
We waited. I was never able to sleep then since Wednesday, since landfall was not sure. I just took a nap.
At 3 am, Friday, I searched Youtube for videos typhoons with almost the same wind range. And I found one. A storm in India. it lasted for a week. I saw nothing but water. Everything was gone. I searched on Google for what damages or devastation and it may bring, and I read;storm surge at 8-12 meter high, total devastation of infrastructures,.....then I froze.
Really? THIS IS WHATS GONNA HAPPEN LATER! OR IN THIS HOUR! OR THIS MOMENT!
I WAS SHOCKED! I couldn't move. Then I tried hard to calm myself.
Sleeping on our bedroom, was my husband & my little girl. I walked slowly, woke up my husband. I told him calmly on what I have just read. He said, come, lets drink coffee. And we never talked, just stared each other.
Now its 4:30 am. It starts to rain. Electricity still ongoing. Wi-fi still on. I was still able to post something on facebook.
Bright light I can see outside. A good morning. Raining hard now, with strong winds hurling up, its 5:30.
My husband, got his camera, go outside our door, he wanted to film whats happening. About 6:00 am, I called him to come inside, strong winds are coming. Our fences was down.
Inside we waited. Listened. Me and my little girl was siting on our bed, I was covering her ears, telling her to be calm, don't be afraid, I was trying to let her play a game in her tablet to distract her from being frightened by the noise outside, and on our roof.
Few minutes more, we peeped at the window, it was all white outside. Nothing you can see. We heard the roof from our garage being flown away, in one stroke, all of it. the whole lot of the roof!!! Then my husband was guarding our door, pushing the sofa so not to be opened by the strong wind, he was trying so hard. I grabbed out dining table, brought it on our bedroom, we stayed under it. Cradling my little girl, she starts to wonder whats happening. I said, "let's pray."
I was praying aloud. "I BELIEVE IN GOD".
A blast of wind pushed through the door, my husband on the floor. Our door, now widely opened, with wind surging up. Seconds later, in comes dark inky water. My husband shouted; WATER! GO OUT! I straightly carried my daughter, 3 steps I'was out our bedroom door, we ran to the kitchen, (we just have a small space),water almost up hip level, we got up the sink. Water rose so fast that it was up to our necks just seconds later. And it stopped rising. The wind was so strong then, we can only see up to a meter or two. Rain was like slapping our faces.
As I was carrying my daughter, under that neck-high water, covering from the rain with our kitchen cabinet, we tried to grab floating gas tank, a plastic jug on which we poured out the water. I dont know how to swim! Oh my God!
Shouting out our lungs, my husband said we swim to the bathroom, and try to move up the ceiling, though most of our roof & ceiling was gone, our bathroom still got it. But I was afraid we conuld be trapped. I saw our built-in divider, just 2 meters away from where we stand(the sink), I said, there, we swim and climb up. Its just a 3 layer cabinet or we can call it a built-in rack, made of half-inch plywood.
We swam. My husband pushed me, I was carrying our daughter. First attempt to climb, I was being pushed up, I stepped on the first rack, it broke! Was dropped into water, didn't know what happened, I was on way up the 3rd rack, pushed my daughter to climb up, then myself. Had my daughter sitting on the tiny corner, with her raincoat on, covering through the 1 foot frame of the rack. She was cold, trembling, blueish lips, holding on. I was praying aloud. My husband under us, swimming, swimming with SNAKES!
Winds still blowing hard, we were all trembling with cold. Waters stopped rising.
Suddenly, the wind calms, I was thinking of my daughter, grandma and my two aunties in the first door! Did they make it????? I did not know what to think! I told my husband to try to climb up through the ceiling so we can check them out. He tried. He tried hard. Cut his hands & foot. He was not able to climb up, it was just to high & he cant hold on to something. We waited. I heard my daughter crying! She was crying! I hear her!!! I shouted! I shouted stay where you are! hold on! The water is not stopped rising! Its going to stop soon!
We held on.
And it stopped.
Now the water is down waist-high. We climbed down. Everything is on water. I found our wooden dining table, grab it, put it on the corner outside our bedroom, have me little girl sat there, found her big bear stuffed toy, put it beside her, and rested. She was tired. Sleepy. And trembling. I hugged her, hugged her tight.
My cousin from the 3rd door, had their struggle of survival too. He came out first. Check on us. Then with my husband they went on to check at the 1st door. The ceiling there was curled down. they were all inside the bedroom. Locked in. All alive!!! Praise the Lord!!!
I carried my daughter, we went to the 1st door. At last, we are all together.
Smiles on our faces. We didn't cry. In fact we never cried at all. We were just too happy to see each of us alive!
My grandma trembling hard, I found a pack of her adult diapers, thanks God it was still sealed. I opened it, put it under her blouse, front & back, under her pajamas. Wrapped her with the sack that I put on the window where I found dry. And she calm down, and stopped trembling. She was so strong, I never thought how she survived it through. God really has his ways I believe.
Then, along we talked, waited. We didn't feel hungry. We just talked.
All of them waiting in the bedroom, I went out to check out neighbors, I shouted. They were ok. They came to us. We were all glad were all alive.
Our house was wrecked. No food. no water almost. No dry clothes. I was looking for slippers or shoes or anything I can find to protect my feet. We thought we need to move. And it was getting dark. A 4 storey dormitory on our neighborhood was our evacuation place. We went there. Almost all of our neighbors were there. We found floating noodles, coffee & biscuits at our house, grabbed it and its all that we had.
First night comes in. We were at the 2nd floor of the dormitory building. Its raining again. We were on wet clothes. Noodles are given the men who set fire outside to cook. We're on a double deck, my & my daughters on top, my grandma and aunts below. I found sheets of paper from students who live there, I used it to put inside there clothes, so they feel dry up. At least it can help us feel warm. Here comes the cooked noodles, we shared on 2 cups, my daughter just ate a little because the flavors was mixed up. We ate little.
It was still raining. Thunder & lightning. When is this going to stop? Are we doomed?
I was so tired. We were all so tired. We prayed, everybody was crying & praying.
And silence came. All asleep.
Second day. We all woke up. Go down. took a bath at the deep well. We used dish washing liquid as soap, I know, funny right. Still on wet clothes, at least we feel clean now. Go up our room, eat some biscuits. No water. And we didn't feel thirsty at all! I don't know. I never felt I needed anything at all.
Everybody was busy. Chaos comes in. News spreading how its like outside, I mean going further the barangay. Everything was down. Houses, trees, electric post, everything. Streets are covered with uprooted tress, debris, and dead people.
Everybody was thinking of going to the hospital, that rescue would come today, food & water will be there.
It was like a scene in a movie as I recall.
Then came our rescue.
My cousins husband & uncle came o check on us. They were so glad we made it.
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