By Sarwell Meniano (PNA)
TANAUAN, Leyte — Five years after the 2013 devastation of Super Typhoon Yolanda, this coastal town has recovered but victims of the catastrophe are still haunted by the sound of the storm and images of deaths and destruction.
Ferdinand Quieta recalled how he retrieved the bodies of his dead children from the rubble and buried them in the junction, a common grave for more than a hundred of their neighbors in Calogcog village here.
Quieta lost all four of his children. The eldest was 11 and the youngest was one year old. Sharing his plight are his in-laws whose 17 family members, mostly women and children, perished when cruel winds pushed large amounts of sea water into what they considered as the safest house of their clan.
“It’s been five years, but there are some days that we cry since we really miss our children. We may not have kids again in this life, but we know we will reunite with them in the next life,” said Quieta, who is now actively involved in agriculture program of the local government. His wife, Doris works at the provincial agriculture office.
In some weekends, the couple gathered children in their community to host a children’s party. “We love to see little ones having fun inside our home. We treated them like our own,” Quieta shared.
J. Merill Calda, whose father and mother were swept away by storm surges whipped up by “Yolanda” had to deal with challenges in the past five years. His parents were buried in a common grave near the Roman Catholic chapel in Mohon village this town.
“I have learned to stand on my own, find a job, asks for help from others so I could go back to school. The typhoon taught me self-reliance. I have to go on my own to fulfill the dream of my parents for me,” said Calda, who was just 18 when the typhoon struck the region.
Calda is now on his third year Accountancy at Eastern Visayas University Tanauan campus supported by his older brother and sister-in-law.
Juanita Abas of San Roque village said it is always painful to remember Nov. 8, 2013 where eight of his grandchildren were killed by storm surges. The body of her daughter-in-law is still missing.
“ ’Yolanda’ was a big nightmare to us, but we have to rebuild our shattered lives,” said Abas, who has been managing a small community store in their village.
In a simple commemorative program Thursday, Tanauan Mayor Pelagio Tecson said the impact of the monster typhoon has not defeated the people’s resolve to rise.
“No matter how strong it was, it failed to break our spirit. We have come a long, long way rebuilding our lives, our homes, and our communities. Today, Tanauan in so many ways is so much better than it was before ‘Yolanda’,” Tecson told the crowd that gathered at the town plaza where nearly a thousand were buried.
The mayor decided to convert public plazas and junctions along national roads to mass grave sites as toppled coconut trees blocked access road to the public cemetery.
“We can consider Nov. 8, 2013 as our second birthday. We could have perished that day, but we survived,” Tecson stressed.
The town is one of the hard-hit areas during the monster typhoon, leaving a trail of destruction worth PHP91.41 billion. At least 1,207 people were killed by big waves and 45 by killer winds.
The second-class town, located 18 kilometers north of Tacloban, has been tagged as model of post-disaster recovery in central Philippines for being the first to get back on its feet.
“Yolanda,” said to be the strongest typhoon in world history, struck central Philippines and wreaked havoc to 175 cities and towns in 14 provinces in six regions. The disaster killed more than 6,000 people.
Total cost of damage and losses in “Yolanda”-affected areas reached PHP101.79 billion, of which PHP48. 79 billion was from Eastern Visayas.
