Heaven
and earth are not humane: they treat the ten thousand things like
(sacrificial) straw dogs.
— Lao
Tzu (The
Tao Te Ching)
Before
we move to Montevista, we hear warnings of a super typhoon hitting
Mindanao. Only 11 months previously,
in the year before I
moved to the Philippines, Compostela Valley, including Elsa's
neighborhood in Montevista were hit by the Category 5 super typhoon
Pablo. With winds up to 175 miles per hour,
it was the
strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit the southern island of
Mindanao. Pablo destroyed houses, disrupted communications and caused
power outages, flooding and uprooted trees throughout the area. Over
three quarters of the banana plantations were destroyed. Landslides
made roads impassable. Raging waters and mud from the mountains swept
through the area leaving more than a thousand people dead and
thousands more homeless.
Elsa
awoke early in the morning on December 4, 2012 to howling winds and
torrential rains beating down her door and roof. Shortly, the street
became a river and the rice fields a lake. The rice crops were
destroyed and houses near the fields a quarter mile down the road
were underwater. The typhoon blew sheets of galvanized metal from
Elsa's roof and it was severely damaged. Entire roofs flew away from
many neighbors homes and were replaced with tarpaulin. Coconut trees
fell all around. A couple near Elsa's yard were bowed by the wind and
she feared they would fall on the house. Fortunately, it was spared.
Others were not so fortunate and many homes in the neighborhood were
completely destroyed. During the first couple of nights, a dozen
people made homeless by Pablo slept on Elsa's veranda. Relief workers
brought in rice and canned goods and Elsa's home became a
distribution center. A few days later, after the waters subsided,
house owners near the rice fields returned to find their homes
infested with snakes. And, after Pablo left the area, many people,
including Elsa and her family had no electricity or free flowing
water for over a month.
Banana trees flattened by Typhoon Pablo. Image courtesy of AFP. |
So
news of another super typhoon hitting the area terrifies Elsa's
daughter Ibig and she comes to stay with us in Cacacho, bringing with
her Chan Chan, her four-year-old niece and our granddaughter. Ibig is
Chan Chan's surrogate mother. Her actual mother, Bernadine has been
working as a domestic overseas in Dubai for the last two years.
Leaving children behind while working overseas is a common practice
in the Philippines where it is difficult to find work and those who
do find work are underemployed and poorly paid. Almost 40% of
Filipinos live on less than $3 a day, so not surprisingly, some 2.5
million Filipinos work overseas.
Ibig
arrives and we await the storm. This time the typhoon strikes north
of Compostela Valley, hitting Tacloban in the Eastern Visayas on
November 8th
and cutting a swath west across the Philippines. The typhoon hits
with sustained wind speeds of 195 miles per hour which sometimes reach 235 mile per hour. Named Typhoon Yolanda, it is even more
powerful and deadly than Pablo. In it's wake, entire cities are
washed away. Some 10,000 lose their lives and many thousands more are
missing. Some 11 million people are affected with almost two million
left homeless and six million displaced.
Some
journalists reporting from the area describe the devastation as
apocalyptic. The L.A.
Times says that
Typhoon
Yolanda made hurricanes Sandy and Katrina look like weak cousins. The
storm quickly sweeps across the central part of the Philippines
(unlike Pablo which circled the area for five days). Relief efforts
are soon underway, but have difficulty reaching many areas. I appeal
to friends in the U.S. to send donations and support. Ibig and Elsa
are grateful that this time their town was spared, but we all feel
overwhelmed and deeply saddened by the devastation so many face.
Victim of Typhoon Yolanda holds placard asking for food. Image courtesy of Reuters. |
A
month later, we visit New Bataan, the town hardest hit by Typhoon
Pablo the previous year. The
National Highway turns away from Montevista and winds east five miles
through the town of Compostela and on for another ten miles into New
Bataan.
The last mile or so is lined with upright logs cut from coconut trees
toppled during Pablo and topped with face-like coconut sculptures. We
continue on up a hill and toward the mountains. Soon we reach
Barangay Andap, center of Pablo's devastation. We park next to a
chapel. Teenagers and other young people stream from a tourist bus
parked just ahead of us. Many of them climb a circular steel stair
structure, a memorial overlooking the rock fields.
San
Roque Chapel was the only building left standing in the barangay
after the typhoon hit; it survived a debris flow from a flash flood
that swept away houses, schools, trees and everything else that stood
in its path. At the height of the typhoon, people sought shelter in
the barangay's two story health center, but it collapsed and they,
too, were swept away. All are buried under a huge debris field of
rocks and boulders. A marker above the rock field lists the names of
the 430 killed and 320 still missing.
Casualties of Typhoon Pablo.. Image courtesy of ABS/CBN. |
The
government has promised to rebuild homes destroyed by Pablo (and
presumably will do so for the victims of Yolanda), but thus far,
hasn't delivered. A cynic would say the new pabahay (housing) will be
completed just in time for the next election – a practice common in
the Philippines as is government hoarding of relief goods for
political gain.
Meanwhile, the victims of these two Super Typhoons continue to suffer from hunger and homelessness. Lao Tsu was right; heaven and earth are not humane.
Meanwhile, the victims of these two Super Typhoons continue to suffer from hunger and homelessness. Lao Tsu was right; heaven and earth are not humane.