Life After Super Typhoon "Odette" Hit Cebu

Greetings, my dear hivers! It's been 2 weeks since I last posted my last blog. There was no electricity nor signals in our area after a super typhoon hit Cebu, so I was not able to post again.

It was a really scary night and a big surprise for most Cebuanos to experience such a strong typhoon. We have encountered numerous typhoons, but this is the strongest one I have experienced in my 22 years of existence.

The typhoon started at 7 in the evening and ended at midnight. There were still winds at 1 a.m., but it's not that strong anymore. During the typhoon, the wind was so strong that it took some of our roofs off, which caused our house to run water down to our basement. Thankfully, the rain was not that strong, so it did not really cause a flood outside. It was extremely scary to listen to the strong wind whenever it passed or hit houses, to the sounds of glass breaking and the roofs being taken away. Some of our neighbors have been rescued from their homes since it was not safe anymore to stay, and others have gone to our neighbors.

As I went out, it was past 4 in the morning, and this is what I saw. It was very different from what it usually looks like. There were trees in this area, but they were all gone after that night.

The typhoon took our roofs off. Some were found at our neighbor's house, and others were found on the streets.

This is my mom's mini garden, and half of her plants were dead. Luckily, my calamansi remained strong, but still it was saddening to look at.

Thankfully, the tree didn't fall but slanted towards our roof in front.

Days have passed and we still don't have any signs of having electricity back. Some areas have cellular signals, some still don't. We need to communicate with our relatives.

Fortunately, the municipal hall offered free charging points, as did some of our malls here. After attending Misa de Gallo at 4 am, we went straight to the mall. As we arrived, we started lining up at 6 am. We got into the mall at 12 noon and started charging at 1 pm and ended at 5 pm. Many people were piling up at the malls to charge. We have to save batteries because it's so hard to charge just one phone.

We've seen more typhoon damage on our way there. We had seen very long queues at gasoline stations, charging points, and water stations (everyday people start to line up at dawn and go back home in the afternoon or evening) and everyone looked tired.

Many have changed. We thought the pandemic would be the worst thing to happen to us, but we were wrong. This typhoon was worse than the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, we had to stay at home, but now we had to go out. Prices increased a lot, the streets were busy and crowded; we had to start lining up at dawn just so we could buy gasoline, withdraw cash, refill drinking water, charge phones, go out and look for signals so we could check on our families if they're doing well.

This time around, we're probably busy buying gifts and food for Noche Buena, but now we are busy lining up at malls, gas stations, water stations, and ATM machines. Everyone was excited to celebrate Christmas this year since others were not really able to celebrate last year because of the strict restrictions. Just a week before, we thought we could celebrate a merrier Christmas than last year. But this happened, things have gotten worse, and even now we still don't know if we will be able to have electricity, water, or a proper internet connection this coming new year.

Many had not expected that typhoon Odette would be that strong. Many of us had not prepared thoroughly. The lesson is to always plan for the worst-case scenario. It's better to get ready and be well prepared to fight in a battle than to just face the battle without preparing to fight, thinking everything would be just fine.

That's all for this blog. Thank you for stopping by! See you in my next post.

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_{Melria is a book lover and a story teller. She loves to explore various things beyond her limits. If you like her content you may drop a comment, upvote and reblog her post.}