Why does it have to be so painful, Reming?
Monday, December 11, 2006
video grabbed from youtube user, akirazan..
Around 8 am of December 1, the online edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) reported that 11 people have died in a landslide in Albay caused by the rains brought on by supertyphoon Reming. Typhoons, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, among many other disasters, come and go every year, and the death of 11 caused by a storm would no longer be new in the Philippine news. Sad to say, the report about 11 deaths did not write thirty to the story.
Around 10 pm of the same day, PDI reported that the mudflows from the slopes of the Mt. Mayon triggered by the merciless rain had buried eight villages and 108 people. I hoped that the body count would stop there. I am so much in love with Bicol's beauty and I cannot bear to see it suffer. Being pure Bicolano, having been born and having studied high school there, I could only hope that things would not be so painful. Living far away from home hurts most. My mother and other relatives live about 50 kilometers away from the eye of the typhoon. Powerlines have gone down in the entire province and there was no way to check if my family was doing fine.
In Albay, the counting of bodies killed in the mudslide and of those still missing continued. By the following day, Red Cross reported a death toll of 388. All news and photos which I could read and see online described the gory state of the province after the storm's wind gusts which was at 265 KPH hit the province harder that one can imagine. The news said that people heard voices below the ground. There were not enough body bags. The list of the missing was too long while there were not enough volunteers for the search and rescue operations. Tonight, two weeks after the disaster, the number of people dead and missing has reached 1,200. The entire province must be in tears.
I learned that my mother and family are safe in Nabua. Many houses in our town have been unroofed and people say that the wrath of Reming was the worst they have experienced in four decades. People in my town are having a hard time finding food to eat and the prices of commodities from candles to canned goods have gone up. Most families still cannot rebuild their houses as even materials like nipa, wood, and iron nails are no longer available, if not too expensive.
Tonight, my mother told me that it is so much worse in Albay. Cagsawa Ruins, definitely a national heritage, is now gone, completely buried under the mud. People have nothing to wear, they are starving and thirsty -- even the whole province of Albay's water supply has to be delivered from neighboring areas. Hundreds of families are living in tents or in what have remained from their previous homes. There will probably be no electricity until the beginning of the New Year. Classes had been suspended of course and nobody knows when school will resume in 2007. An entire province will be grieving this Christmas over a thousand lives taken by the storm...
(Care to help? I am trying to organize a fundraising campaign here in Tokyo, through the Kultura Volunteers. So far I have received pledges from 2 groups, from the Filipino students of the Soshigiya Dormitory and Sankyu, a group of Ilonggos in Japan. These groups will cooperate with each other in filling up three big boxes with used clothing and beddings for shipping to the distressed towns in Bicol. Please leave a comment with your name and email and I will get back to you should you be interested in helping.)
Labels: Nabua, student life, video clips
