IT WILL take two months before Kalinga goes back to the grid, until then, our warriors up north will have to contend with the darkness of no electricity: now that is what you call a blackout.
As people in the City of Baguio and Benguet rage against the Benguet Electric Cooperative’s inability to restore power lines hours after the super typhoon, the Kalinga Electric Cooperative has raised and the white flag and humbly declared defeat, announcing at least two months of repair before they recover.
At this day and age, how can an entire province have no power? How can communication lines be topped and not repaired just like that?
We are in the Philippines that is why, and to take it further, we are in the Cordilleras, the mountain ranges where signal is inherently weak and road networks stand frail to typhoons; we expect of be cut off from the world a few times in a year.
It is said the province has survived in the past for over 4 months without power with the rich affording the luxury of generators and the public relying on the bastion of power for electricity.
A state of calamity has been declared in both Kalinga and Apayao, twin provinces in the past and now both in a similar state.
Declaring a calamity state will give government access to funding enabling them to focus on rehabilitation, repair and assistance and hopefully make the efforts to rebuild faster.
The brunt of damaged homes is seen in Kalinga with numbers expected to escalate as reports from municipalities come in, as information trickles in from these provinces let the resiliency of the Cordilleras prevail and the brotherhood of the mountain folk overflow to help them.
The storm has humbled us beyond words because at this day and age we realize the power of the wrath of Mother Nature can make even the giant telecoms bow to her.