TACLOBAN CITY, LEYTE – Three days after Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) wiped out everything in its path on November 8, 2013, William Cabuquin Sr. went back to Timex Street in Village 88 to look for his missing wife, Cecilia.
He looked for her every day, amid the debris of wood and cars and concrete walls swept away by the storm surge. He looked for her even as the village smelled of the dead, among body bags scattered on the streets, under the shed, in the Astrodome, and even in Samar. He looked for her everywhere.
He waited for months for Cecilia to come home. She never did.
Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) is deemed one of the largest and strongest typhoons to ever sweep through the Philippines. It had winds that reached 195 miles per hour, causing massive destruction and deaths in all of Eastern Visayas.
For the people of Tacloban City, the memory of Yolanda (Haiyan) still stings. It is a tragedy of the past that will be remembered for years, even as survivors pick up the pieces of their lives shattered by the storm.
In tribute to the thousands of victims who died on that unfortunate day and the thousands of missing who are never to be seen again, Rappler goes back to Village 88 in Tacloban City, where one man recalls his harrowing account of survival and the tragedy of losing his wife.
We remember the victims and the scars it left with the survivors, seven years on. – Rappler.com/Nick Villavecer
How does this make you feel?