A plea from New York after Yolanda (Haiyan)

I have never felt more homesick until now.

As I write this, I find myself paralyzed, thousands of miles and an ocean away from my homeland. My heart is sick with sorrow; my mind reels from the horror of seeing Yolanda’s wrath 24/7 on the news.  

We Filipinos are used to living life dangerously. Teetering on the edge of the world’s “Ring of Fire,” we’ve become inured to the hundreds of lives lost every year to natural disasters. They are a fact of life. But somehow, not this time. This time, with Yolanda (Haiyan), the tragedy seems excessive. And far, far too soon.

From the comfort of my New York City apartment, there is nothing else I can do but share troubling updates on Facebook, hoping some of my friends and acquaintances will care enough to donate a few dollars. Every little bit helps, but is it ever enough? (READ: #YolandaPH (Haiyan): Filipinos worldwide heed call to action)

My $50 contribution seems like a sorry attempt to compensate for my distance. I want no less than to support my fellow Filipinos at home – not from afar – as they struggle to recover from one of the strongest typhoons in recorded history. 

There are no words for the devastation that Yolanda (Haiyan) has wrought upon Eastern Visayas. So far we’ve seen the worst in Tacloban City, Leyte: a flattened landscape, rotting dead bodies strewn about the streets, as innumerable as the debris covering them, survivors starved out of their minds, looting and stealing food from the dead. (READ: Tacloban Diary: I saw death, I fear anarchy) 

And this is only the beginning.

A senior local government official reports that a whopping 10,000 are estimated “dead” in the Leyte region, although President Aquino estimates this could be lower at 2,500. The 10,000 estimate supposedly excludes casualties in Eastern Samar, second only to Leyte in terms of magnitude. 

For sure, the death count will inevitably rise, but 10,000 sounds like hyperbole. I am not demeaning the extent of the destruction, but the methodology behind this statistic should have been double-checked before being splashed across the front pages of the most prominent newspapers worldwide.

Perhaps this is Leyte’s way of preparing for the worst, but frankly, causing undue panic strikes me as irresponsible and insensitive to those who are looking for their loved ones. I, for one, still hope that more people survived than this bleak figure predicts. Maybe this is vain optimism on my part, but as long as the death toll remains unconfirmed, I hope for life.

The government did their part in demanding mass evacuations well ahead of time. Their mistake was NOT making this mandatory. But who knew?

Not even the world’s best-trained meteorologists could have anticipated the storm surges that swallowed up Tacloban and Eastern Samar. Certainly not the people who huddled in their flimsy homes, unaware this would be the storm that claims their lives.   

Grieving, rebuilding

Thankfully, my family and relatives in Bohol were spared the worst of Yolanda. They only experienced strong winds, torrential rain and power outages. That said, Bohol is still recovering from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck just over 3 weeks ago, also killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands of people.

Post-Yolanda, much of the Visayas region is in shambles. People don’t even have the time to grieve their dead. I could lament the injustice of it all, but the wrath of nature spares no one.

And yet, despite the bleakness, we stand strong. We are a hardy and resilient people and most of all, we are resourceful. Despite the bleakness, we have already started mobilizing relief efforts at home and from all over the world. Day by day, international aid continues to pour in from our friends. The only question is what we do with it.  

Once we recover from our collective shock, we can start to rebuild again. We can reinstate some semblance of order from the chaos and route help to where it is needed most. I urge my fellow Filipinos at home and overseas to see through the darkness.  

Don’t give in to despair or anarchy. Our country depends on it. – Rappler.com

Originally from Quezon City, Manila, Maki Somosot is now based in Brooklyn, New York. She currently works at a global public relations agency in New York City.

#BalikBayan is a project that aims to harness and engage Filipinos all over the world to collectively rediscover and redefine Filipino identity.