Tag: Typhoon Frank

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The Great Iloilo Flood: Typhoon Frank’s Wrath

I was born in Iloilo City (Jaro, to be specific) and most of my parents’ relatives still live there as well as in Bacolod City.

So when Typhoon Frank lashed at Panay Island over the weekend, I was very concerned about them. Our driver who had children there told me that the water rose so fast (up to their necks) that the children had to evacuate to neighbors on higher ground.

My brother forwarded to me a text from a relative who described the situation as “serious”. They have no phones, no electricity, no water. And they expect this situation to last several months. This sounded like a step back into the Dark Ages!

I just came from the Multiply blog of my niece and read through her account about how water rose 8-15 feet in Jaro in just 10-15 minutes (how could that be????). Friends of her Mom called to say that their relatives were stuck on trees as water swelled around their barangay. People were caught unaware; many were still having breakfast as the waters rose. So many lives lost, so many homes destroyed completely, so many people’s livelihoods shattered.

I do not have a complete picture yet of how our relatives there are. We are still trying to contact them one by one to check on their situation.

This site carries pictures of the storm’s aftermath in Iloilo. The scope of the devastation just leaves me without words. On TV earlier, I looked at Boracay and could not even recognize it as a tourist spot with pristine waters and white sandy beaches.

As we follow news of the ill-fated Sulpicio ship that sank and the number of passengers who died, even more questions are in my mind concerning the flash floods in Panay:

– How could torrential rains, no matter how strong, inundate such a wide area in just a few minutes?

– Was this a result again of illegal logging?

– Who should be held accountable, if ever illegal activities were behind the floods?

For now, I am helpless here in Manila. All I can do is pray for my family over there and hope they are able to weather this trial. Please pray with me for all those who lost loved ones and shelter and if it is within your means, help by donating your excess to the various institutions accepting them for the people of Panay.

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Typhoon Frank: The Aftermath

This is what our yard looks like right now. A “war zone” after Typhoon Frank made a direct pass over Metro Manila packing winds of about 120 kph. Every time a typhoon passes, our yard looks like this owing to the mango and starapple trees we have. We have had worse storms which had these trees swaying so much that I actually stretched my hands out in prayer that they would not snap and fall towards the house!

Power was cut around 4 AM but thankfully, I had the foresight to have everyone charge their cellphones the night before. We also had our flashlights ready and the kids had done most of their homework.

The only worrisome thought was that M2 and a whole bunch of other teens had gone up yesterday to Antipolo for a 2-day retreat.  I had been communicating with their adult supervisors since last night and they had decided that it was safer for the kids to stay till around 4 PM today (expecting that the worse of the typhoon would have already passed).

Power was restored around noon and internet access about an hour later. Now, it is clean-up time. I reckon we would use up a lot of those large 40-gallon trash bags just for all these leaves. But we are all just so thankful that everyone at home is safe and no damage was done to property (ours and neighbors).

Now, I am just waiting out the time when M2 and his car pool of 3 other schoolmates come down later. The worse is over.

How did you fare during the storm?