Super Typhoon - a Tale of Trauma & Triumph

A thousand blogs and news articles have been written about super typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as 'Yolanda') and more stories would spring forth days, months, even years after, about this deluge that hit our country on the morning of 8 November 2013.  And possibly more than a thousand untold stories of the losses and the survivors' tales.

It has touched our lives and even lives of citizens across the world in ways unimaginable, much like its strong winds that only previously can be comparable to a movie writer's imagination.  For such is the force that it brought Leyte, Samar and other provinces where it mercilessly stormed its deadly path.

satellite feed of Haiyan's approach to Philippines

I still shudder on realization how those of us here in Manila, the Philippine's capital were spared by Haiyan's mighty winds.  It just wafted and blew a mere speckle of its strong winds that fateful Friday night.  Still, even as we're several kilometers away from where it made its 6th and last landfall somewhere in Mindoro (or was it  Palawan, I'm now not so sure), I heard the frightening howl of the winds and we felt some of it too although very mildly compared to those provinces that were directly hit.  I also heard the tin roofs of neighbors' houses banging as if at anytime the wind would pull it off its trusses.  But the beating of my heart then was louder as I already heard snippets of news reports that several houses in Leyte were already destroyed and I can only utter a silent prayer that the typhoon doesn't change its course and proceed to wreak same havoc in our city.  By then I am already well aware of its strength.  In fact, even a week prior to it's reaching the shores of Guiuan, Samar Province, I am already shuddering at the possibilities and well aware of its very strong winds. If only people there were also as paranoid as me, probably there would have been more survivors.

Though I am no weather expert, seeing and reading news of the impending cyclone to hit our land was already at the top of my mind and most especially when reports come not just from our own weather bureau (PAGASA) but also reports corroborated by foreign meteorologists. I worry that we might lose the roof of our home in case it hits Manila. I know that those meteorologists and typhoon-watchers were closely monitoring what they fear is a really monster storm considering that it had been topping their scales of how they normally gauge super typhoons.  If there probably was a stronger word than 'super' I guess that would have been more appropriate to describe those ominous clouds.  Yolanda's diameter is even scarier as I watch satellite feeds of its approach.

AFP Getty Image- survivors wander around the rubble

So when I saw how badly devastated those parts of the provinces in the Visayas were, I am no longer surprised.  Still that knowledge did not prepare me for the trauma it has caused to the psyche. Imagine the countless unidentified corpses, the despair, hurt and pain of our countrymen who not only had to battle the surging seas that washed ashore and destroyed lives and homes, but also the, hunger, thirst, inequities and human indignities suffered post-Haiyan.  The unimaginable suffering and pain they all had to go through and I know that if I have a similar experience I'm not sure I could even learn to smile again.  At least not for a very long time if at all..

And then there were the blame games (both by government vs. local officials of the badly hit towns and vice-versa), the bashing of the government by some quarters over the seemingly very slow & poorly coordinated relief and retrieval operations that only add to the nation's trauma.  Still, there is a glimmer of hope.  For after international media aired the devastation and continue to chronicle and broadcast/write about the plight of our brothers and sisters in the Visayas, the whole world suddenly took notice of our simple Philippine archipelago.  Suddenly, it's as if the storm brought together the whole world to rally behind our countrymen, to send support, offer prayers and just encourage us to go on and rise above the catastrophe.  That alone signified that after all the trauma of this horrific typhoon, there is a triumph of the human spirit.  This triumph is even made more evident with the way some of those who survived the giant storm surge still manage to smile and you still see the children after emerging from the rubble grinning, waving at correspondents' cameras, some even playing a basketball game amid the ruins.  It is amazing that somehow there is still hope and that their spirit is still left untouched by Haiyan.  The way they are also clamoring for help, queuing up to get to better lands, or ride on the rescue plains to move and rebuild their lives somewhere show a true fighting heart, and an even stronger spirit that is still very much willing to live and not let the destruction of monster Yolanda totally wipe them out or reduce their souls to rubble.

USAID soldiers carrying relief goods for Tacloban City victims

One can only conclude that after all these trauma a most refreshing victory follow.  A triumph brought by love for one another (freely given by Filipinos to its countrymen and outpouring of support and concern by citizens of other nations toward the Filipinos and to our whole country).  Triumph trumps trauma after all.