CANDIDA Aliño never thought that the waves she loved to swim in when she was much younger would be the same ones to greatly damage her little house in Sitio Litmon, Barangay Poblacion in Talisay City.
The 80-year-old was one of many residents who were forced to evacuate after rising water started to lash at their homes last Friday night.
At 10 p.m., the water was already waist level. But it wasn’t until four hours later, or at 2 a.m., that Aliño made the decision to leave. By then, strong winds brought about by typhoon Ompong had torn part of her roof, and the pounding waves had caused a portion of her wall to collapse.
Aliño admitted being scared and hungry, which was one of the other reasons that prompted her to evacuate for the first time in her life. She was looking for a store that was open since all the stores in their neighborhood were closed, she said.
Losing a livelihood
Aliño said that barangay officials had urged her and her neighbors to go to the evacuation centers last Friday afternoon, but she did not heed their advice because she was worried what would happen to her house. Also, she did not expect the typhoon to be that strong.
“Kung biyaan ni, way motabang kung matumpag among balay (If I left the house, no one would be there to gather the belongings if it collapsed),” she said.
To keep what was left of her roof, Aliño said she will have someone put a tire over it to make sure it doesn’t fly away.
For Virgilio Restauro, typhoon Ompong meant having to scrounge for a living.
The 51-year-old fisherman from Barangay Pooc said that he hasn’t been able to make a living in the last four days after a gale warning was raised in the entire Visayas region..
He tried to look for alternate work, to no avail. So he just made sure that all the tools of his trade were in place for when he could go out to sea again. (Jerra Mae Librea, USJ-R Intern)