TYPHOON ODETTE Destroyed Our Houses and Source of Living

In my 45 years of living, Typhoon Odette is by far the strongest typhoon that ever landed in my hometown, Cebu Province. The damage was so tremendous that it washed away an island in Lapu-Lapu City, destroyed even the concrete houses, and took away our sources of living.

Few days before Typhoon Odette entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, PAG-ASA announced that it would affect Visayas and Mindanao Islands. We knew that Typhoon Odette would extend to large areas because it was wide, but we did know beforehand that its impact would have a striking similarity to a super typhoon. I personally had no idea the typhoon would reach to Signal No. 4 on that day. Comparing to the typhoon’s strength, I would say that our preparation was very minimal. The information regarding how strong the typhoon would be was not properly disseminated in our area and we were not ready for the huge damage.

December 16, 2021
This was the day when Typhoon Odette hit us. Although it was initially announced that Cebu Province would experience heavy rainfall and the typhoon is Signal No. 2 in our area, the people were very complacent or unworried. I remember my daughter even had her Final Examination scheduled on that day even after the warning of possible power outage and no internet service. The exam almost pushed through if not because of the students who reached out their professors to postpone the exam/presentation because some of them can’t connect to the internet anymore. My daughter’s concern on that day was her Final Examination, and not the typhoon.

At 5:15AM, NDRRM sent a warning through text message stating that Bohol, Cebu, and Leyte were on Signal No. 3 and heavy wind was expected to occur. At 12:25PM, there was a warning on possible occurrence of storm surge in our area. The people were encouraged to evacuate as soon as possible. At 3:00 PM, NRRMC sent Red Rainfall Warning in Cebu. We were on Signal No. 4 in just 10 hours from the last update.

At around 6PM, there was a power outage and the network signal weakened; I can barely send a text message or call my relatives for updates. At 7:30PM, the wind was so strong that we heard strong impact right outside our house. My parent’s house had no roof anymore so we had to rescue the people inside that house and immediately transfer them. The electric pole with many wirings collapsed. Big trees collapsed.

My brother’s house was almost carried by the wind; thankfully there were people who helped him pull the rope that holds the roof together. My sister-in-law’s two-story house fell and one of its roofs hit the neighbor’s house, the neighbor’s house collapsed. 8PM onwards was very disastrous. One event happened after another; we were very scared inside the house. It felt life there was a tornado outside because of how powerful the wind was, I felt like it would blow our house.

Today is the ninth day from that disastrous event; some people, especially those living near the seashores, are still crying for help. They had missing family members. No sufficient food supply. No water supply. And no network signal. It took me a week before I found network signal near the airport of Mactan.

This is our recent update. I just want to share the situation here in Lapu-Lapu.

Thank you for taking the time to read.