The typhoon Odette's aftermath

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since my last post.

I didn't expect that the typhoon would be so terrifying. It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t posted lately.

Photo: Taken from google.com

Here’s what happened during and after the typhoon. At that time, I kept getting alarm notifications from my phone that a storm was approaching. It was signal #3 at first, but then another alert message came in stating that it was signal #4.

I went home right after my work ended at 3:30 p.m., but I could already feel the strong wind and heavy rain. The electricity was turned off around 7 p.m., and the dread began as the typhoon approached

It started with a strong wind and then followed by heavy rain. I tried to sleep but I heard a dog barking and it sounded like it's asking for help. The dog was tied in an empty house next to our home. The house is made of light materials so I was hesitant to help the dog because it might suddenly collapse while I'm inside. I tried to ignore it asking for help but I thought it might die if I didn't rescue it.

Then I immediately wore a hard hat, brought a knife and a flashlight. I tried to go outside the house but the gate was blocked with a lot of galvanized sheet metal. So I had to remove them first in order to get out. While I was carefully walking to the other house where the dog was, I thought I'm looking at Aladin's flying carpet but I was wrong. All of them were galvanized metal sheets flying. It might cut your head or your body in half if you get hit by it.

When I came to the house, I saw the dog and it was already wet and was terrified. Some parts of the house collapsed but the good thing is that the dog was not injured. I didn't have time to untie the leash so I just cut it off using the knife that I brought. I carried the dog and came back to my house.

After that, I just stayed awake for the rest of the night, I could hear houses collapsing, things that were breaking or banging.

Around 6am in the morning, that's when I saw the damages caused by the typhoon. There were several houses that collapsed and or houses that didn't have roofs anymore. Trees are falling and obstructing traffic. The worst-case scenario involves the death of one of my neighbors. The roofs of some of the buildings fell and crashed directly on their home.

I believed the terror would end there, but the typhoon's aftermath is far worse. People began to fear as a result of the lack of electricity and water. The majority of establishments have closed because they wish to save the products that have been left behind for their own purposes.

Aside from that, due to the lack of traffic lights, there is a lot of traffic. Even purchasing gasoline is exhausting due to the enormous line. Because many people are buying gas for their automobiles or using it to cook, you will have to wait 4-5 hours simply to buy it. However, some people take advantage of the situation by reselling it at a premium price in order to increase their profits.

Water is the most pressing issue because most refilling stations are closed due to the lack of electricity. Only those with generators are open. Depending on the queue, you may have to wait a day or two.

In addition, only a few ATM machines are operational, and you will have to wait several hours to withdraw money. I understood that no matter how wealthy you are, even if you have millions in your bank account, you will be unable to utilize it because there are only a few malls operating and they do not accept ATMs.

For two weeks, these problems persisted. Cebu's government took a long time to respond. It took over four days for them to begin working on the issue, which is really disappointing. Even now, we do not have access to electricity or the internet at our location. To get a solid internet connection, I had to ride my bike for about 8 kilometers.

Hopefully, they will be able to fix these issues before the end of this month.