Journey back to Eastern Samar after Yolanda

MANILA, Philippines – Jacqueline Michele Walter, a 26-year-old teacher from British School Manila, is organizing her own relief effort to bring aid to the isolated municipality of Hernani in Eastern Samar.

There had been initial reports of at least 200 dead in Hernani.

In the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, she wants to fill up a truck made available to her by Victory Lines. British School in Manila pitched in with donations enough for her to fill up the truck with relief goods.

If logistics and security arrangements will allow it, they plan to make their way back to Eastern Samar on Tuesday, November 19.

She wants to return to Eastern Samar, thankful for a loved one surviving the storm and being able to come back with her to Manila. That loved one was her own mother, Elizabeth.

Just ‘another’ typhoon

Elizabeth Aserios Walter was at the family beach house in Makate Island, a 40-minute banca ride from the town proper of the 4th class municipality of Sulat.

Like most locals used to typhoons, she stayed on the island. The concept of a category 4 super typhoon was unfathomable. “The people thought they were used to it so they did not bother evacuating. No one knew what a storm surge was, that it was like a tsunami,” Elizabeth said.

“I was begging for her to come home,” Jacqueline recalled, but by that time, the waters were too rough to get back to the mainland.

“There was something funny [with the water]. The water seemed like it was boiling on both sides and then suddenly the water went up really high – it was so scary – as high as the coconut tree. I’ve never seen anything like that. The sound hurt your ears,” Elizabeth recounted.

Run!

In the nearby barangay of Luyong, a resident monitoring the waters was able to warn everyone of the coming surge.  

They dropped everything and, “Just like in the movies he was screaming ‘Run! Run!’ so everyone ran in different directions to the mountain.”

The storm surges left hardly any trace of Luyong. Concrete homes were flattened, leaving only signs of a floor and hole in the ground where a toilet bowl used to stand. An iron gate carried by the 315-kph winds was left mangled around a tree and boulders were carried meters away from where they firmly once stood. (Read: Yolanda and the world’s strongest storms)

Elizabeth shudders to think what could have happened had the typhoon made landfall at night instead of the morning. It would have been nearly impossible for residents to see the rising waters and everyone in the village would have been killed. 

Yolanda proved that her fury was unlike any storm the quiet seaside town of Sulat had ever experienced.

Starvation and security problems

Although the residents survived the storm in Sulat, starvation and security are now the biggest threats. (Read: Tormented typhoon victims scour for food)

Excluding the seaside barangay of Luyong and neighboring Balud, the center of Sulat remains relatively unscathed but as early as Monday, November 11, resources had already run out. Banks, markets, and gas stations have been shut down. Even if residents are financially able, with nothing to buy, cash has no value.

Elizabeth had to travel two towns away to Dolores just to get 4 sacks of rice to share with the community.

“Now people might actually die of starvation. There is no food coming in. The crops are dead. The livestock is dead. The barangay smells like dead pigs everywhere. So there is nothing to eat even if they have money to buy food,” Jacqueline said.

Residents subsist on the limited rice, food, and water they had before the storm hit and are sharing their dwindling supplies with neighbors who have lost everything.

Last town standing

With reports of looting in the devastated areas of Tacloban and Guiuan the residents in nearby municipalities are worried about their security.

Elizabeth said that from her town in Sulat, to San Julian, Dolores, and Borongan, people are starting to protect themselves, worried about what might happen in the coming days.

“I’m a little bit worried and scared because some people think – since our place is the last one standing in Eastern Samar – they are going to come to our place to get help,” Elizabeth said. And although buildings still stand and no corpses line their roads, Elizabeth worries that soon enough even they will have no food or water left to give to survivors fleeing nearby towns. – Rappler.com 

Here are scenes of the devastaion in Hernani captured by Rappler’s Franz Lopez.

If you would like to help in Jacqueline’s relief effort, the supplies needed are:

• Rice
• Tarpaulin
• Water purification tablets
• Blankets
• Canned goods
• Noodles
• Clothes
• Calderos
• Waterproof matchsticks

For more details you may email jacquiwalter@gmail.com.