REMINISCING WHEN TYPHOON ODETTE WASHED OUT OUR FAMILY'S HOME NEAR THE SHORELINE

Hello Hivers! This may be a little late, but kindly allow us to share our experience from the devastating Typhoon Odette, which completely washed out my family's home near the shoreline.

We were onboarded on Hive last February 2022 and we never got the chance to share our most terrifying typhoon experience last December 2021. As mentioned in our introduction post, both of us were situated on the shoreline of Purok Tulingan, Barangay Looc, Danao City, Cebu. Our purok was known to be the home to a lot of fishermen in Danao so it was named after to a fish called Tulingan, a Filipino term for mackerel tuna. It was our first time to experience a typhoon which has gustiness and wind similar to a Category 5 cyclone. Right now, we are experiencing the first typhoon this year to land in our country Philippines named Agaton and it brings us back to the most heartbreaking days of our lives. We, people residing near the shore already have traumas on typhoons and storm surges.

On the day of the typhoon, our company allowed us to be working at home and we grabbed the opportunity to do my time study report and Marycris was doing some replenishment plan. The rain started to pour out so we started to evacuate. Gladly, we managed to evacuate at my Sister-in-Law's house hours before the typhoon ravages. My whole family also evacuated to my sister's house located still in Looc but on a higher place. We didnt pay much attention as we assumed that it will just pass through Cebu same as the other previous typhoons. We just brought our cellphones, charger, powerbanks and laptop upon evacuating. We didn't brought any of our other applicances and clothes thinking that it will just pass through. Our house has already survived several powerful typhoons, including Super Typhoon Yolanda. So we did not anticipate that this particular typhoon would leave us without a home. In short, we were not completely prepared for this to come.

_{Working at Home on the Day of the Typhoon}

Around 6:00 PM, the strong winds started to blew up. Then there was a total blackout. It sounds like a siren as the wind whistles. The wind began to break the roofs of the neighborhood where we evacuated. As early as 7:00 p.m., roofs and branches of trees were flying and it intensified as the hours passed by. My sister-in-law had an episode of anxiety attack and told her that we didn't need to be worried because we were all safe at her house. What we need to be concerned about will be the homes we left near the shore line. I then prayed to God, pleading for the heavy rain and strong wind to stop. I was so worried about what could happen to our home near the shoreline if this continues to happen. Her anxiety attack worsen when we saw red lights flashing up in the sky as it if was a red alert signal thinking that the worst already happened.

We haven't had any information what is the situation of our home near the shoreline, so at 11:00 PM when the wind began to calm down, we headed back to the shore wearing helmets to ensure our safety and to protect us from falling objects. But we cannot access the path to our house since it was blocked with fallen trees and stranded boats and the roads were covered by white stones so we headed back again to our evacuation place. I haven't slept at all due to the chaotic and traumatic situation. When the sun started to rose up, we immediately headed to the shoreline to check the damages of the storm and it broke our hearts to see that the first and second row of the houses of our shoreline were completely wiped out including my sister's house and our house. I couldn't forget those days that everything around me had been destroyed. I was terribly sad to have seen the home filled with memories of my loved ones swept away. It was just heartbreaking to see that all the hardworks you and your family put into building that house were gone. It was a nightmare. As I was touring around the damages, I could really feel as if I was on a completely different place. I can't believe how the 4 hour ravaging typhoon could bring so much damage to the place where I grew up and it will never be the same again. My fishermen neighbors also lost their livelihood as their boats were wrecked by the typhoon including my brothers'.

_{The Damage from the Outside's View of my Sister's House -}

_{The Damage from the Inside's View of my Mother's House -}

_{My Brother-in-Law trying to recover something from our house}

The Damage Brought by the Typhoon To Purok Tulingan

_{The Damage in my Neighborhood's Home}

We interviewed some of our neighbors who happen to witness the waves and said that the height of the waves were like coconut trees splashing through our homes. It was just as early as 7:00 PM when the first row including my sister's house was completely eaten by the storm surges and then few hours later would be our house. I cannot imagine how strong and big the waves were, enough to wreck our home. Some of the pigs and chicken of our neighbors were found dead.

_{Sharing the Experiences}

While searching for things that we could recover around the damages,to our surprise, we saw this graduation photo of us. I don't know if this was some miracle but the photo of us were just perfectly fine. The photo reminded us that what happened was similar to our relationship, we may have experienced storms as strong as the typhoon but we conqured it and remained strong.

_{Me trying to recover anything from our destroyed house}

_{Our recovered graduation photos}

Luckily, Marycris' house, where we are currently staying was located at the third row from the shoreline so it was not completely washed out but it still have damages since a banca or a boat entered the house. Imagine if the typhoon did not calm down it would be the next to have been washed out. All of the things including our clothes and bed were completely wet and soaked with sea water since the sea also entered the house. Marycris was so worried about her cats since we were not able to brought with us to the evacuation site but gladly we found them on the ceiling and we could also see how terrified they were.

_{Before and After}

_{The Boat that Entered our House}

A day after the typhoon, we were all scrambling up, down, left and right for drinking water, ATM cash, electricity, gasoline, and data signal. Water, on the other hand, is literally everyone's prime concern includes bathing water, cleaning water, toilet flushing water and most importantly drinking water. Just to get to gasoline stations and an ATM, we would travel kilometers and take hours to line up. Also, in fetching water through a deep well gives us a hard time.

_{Fetching water from deep well}

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_{Lining up for drinking water}

_{Lining up water from a firetruck}

_{Lining up for gasoline}

_{Hiking to get data signal}

It's amazing how a crisis like this can abruptly shift anyone's priorities. Our ambitious desires of travelling around the world like our mid twenties used to dream of, were temporarily put on hold for the time being because the situation was all about survival. It will make you realize that having a house to sleep in, enough clean water for drinking, bathing, cleaning, or withdrawing money to buy groceries and having access to basic needs without having to queue for hours is already a huge win, and I'm pretty sure that's how everyone feels at that time.

Days after the typhoon, our neighbors including us, used our resources to slowly rebuild our home. I am thankful that no rain poured six days after the typhoon. Some set up temparory tents and some used scrap materials to temporary rebuild homes. And then relief goods started to distribute to us, the coastal areas of our barangay, the most affected ones.

We are currently in the rebuilding stage. We are still rising from the ashes and getting back on our feet. We're about halfway from rebuilding our home. We don't have a choice but to keep going; we're just thankful that we're all safe, alive and well. But despite the fact that we were fortunate to survive, the memory of it still weighs heavily on my heart.