We knew it, Typhoon Yolanda, was coming. The community was
prepared. People who needed to be evacuated to safer areas were moved
there. Massive cutting of trees happened to mitigate the damage they could do.
My favorite trees in town, a row of gigantic acacias were severely pruned to half their size, filling the street with piles of growth to be chopped up and hauled off. Amazingly, Yolanda blew them apart even more, filling the street again.
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| Pruning the acacias before Yolanda |
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| After Yolanda the acacias are a quarter the size they were |
Our group of five PCVs in my area
made the decision to NOT consolidate in Baybay but stay where we were. Going to
Baybay only put me closer to the center of the typhoon.
Villarubins' evacuation center
Our house became a mini evacuation center. We expected it to
hit about 10AM and pass in two hours. The wind woke me up at 3AM. We had no
power, no cell phone service and of course no internet. Three windows were
broken and half of the tree in the back broke off. About 9:00 I realized I had
a problem in my room. I’d closed the two windows that would close but the third
set of windows couldn't close because of the air con unit. We hadn't thought
about the upper two thirds of the window opening having only cardboard in them.
The cardboard had been blown out and the typhoon was entering my room. I wish I
could have videotaped this most exciting and somewhat comical operation. It
took Alex, Anita and I twenty minutes to get the air con unit out and those
windows shut. I did take video out windows during the storm. The Firm gas
station roof almost took off like a magic carpet but after tipping back and forth ended up standing vertical.
