IT WAS in 1977 when Taal Volcano last erupted. That was four decades ago. Children then are in their 40s now. So the first sight of Taal Volcano spewing smoke and ashes was a rousing view and moment for the neighborhood. Like a tourist feeling excited in the view of something new and different. The impending danger did not sink in yet because it has never happened before. Everything turned upside down when they knew they had to leave their houses and go somewhere safe.
Nobody wants being displaced. It’s one of the last things a human being in this age does not want to find himself/herself to. Being displaced is akin to being moved to somewhere one does not like to go to but there is nothing to be done because the place he/she calls home is no longer livable to the human standard. Waking up in the middle of the night or even when the sun hits one’s face seeing things and faces not familiar is murdering for many. It’s stressful let alone for parents to see their youngsters sleeping uncomfortably on basketball court’s floor or in a classroom. How about the elderly, the toddlers, the sick, and those who do not even want to see the other side of the town? Yes, they also left many of the animals.
News tells us that some towns near the volcano are becoming ghost municipalities because everything is turning gray. Day by day roads are becoming unpassable. Houses and buildings, aside from turning into ash colors, are getting cracks from the tremors of the eruption. These are homes and places for too many generations and all of a sudden, these places had to be abandoned. Residents are leaving in groups and many of them are forced to do it. How can one believe that Taal, a beauty of a sight, a place that pulls in tourists is now the reason they are leaving their homes and who knows how long? And if they go back home, will it ever be the same?
It’s easy to say that people near the Volcano have been evacuated and brought somewhere safe. But being safe here does not mean safe and sound. We cannot totally feel the fear and worry they experience. It is uncomfortable yes, but being displaced is more than being uncomfortable. It is terrifying. These are unforeseen events and people in the evacuation areas do not really know the best things to do. They have many things in mind and they can only do too little. It’s hard to think about the future because they have less control of what’s happening in the present. People interviewed on national television cannot help but cry. They just want to survive and all cries for help are centered on the help for survival. Yet life is not only about survival.
Taal Vocano’s eruption is not only displacing people but memories. Ashes are now knee-deep on roads according to an article in the New York Times. If this continues, some local maps in Batangas and Cavite will need to be redrawn. Places including the memories happened there will be gone. These are all happening while people start to accept these are really happening.
The poor are the most vulnerable when disasters like this one happens. They do not have any other place to go but the evacuation centers or choose to become stubborn and stay in their ash-covered houses. They have nothing to rely on during these times but the mercy of the government and the generosity of our fellow Filipinos (which are coming in).
Challenges in the evacuation centers are plentiful. How can we help the displaced? It is ensuring that they are physically safe and letting them feel as much as we can that these evacuation areas they temporarily lived now are not so strange at all. Love and mercy can do that.