The storm that stole Christmas

AS THE INCESSANT RAIN DRUMMED ANGRILY on the tin roof of their two-storey house, Floresa Avenida, 31 years old, married with four children, was anxiously listening to her radio for updates of the tropical storm Washi—locally known as Sendong.

It was only 8:00 pm, but it had been raining since 2:00 pm, that fateful Friday, 16 December 2012.

“The radio announcer said that flood waters have begun seeping in barangay Cugman, Cagayan de Oro City” she said. The Avenidos have resided at Zone 7, Sitio Acacia, barangay Carmen—one of the hard-hit villages—since her father migrated to the city in the early ‘50s from Bohol.

“It took only five minutes for the flood water to reach the second floor of our house,” she said. By the time she was able to gather her wits, the water was already waist-deep in their second floor.

“We stacked our chairs on top of each other on our dining table to serve as our ladder. I hammered into the ceiling and out of our roof,” said Avenido. She added that while she was doing this, her husband held their dining table while their three children were holding to his belt.

Like a thief in the night

Barely a week before Christmas, tropical storm Washi—locally known as Sendong—reached landfall on the east coast of Mindanao on the afternoon of December 16, 2011. Washi claimed 1,472 lives, injured 1,748 persons and 1,074 still missing, now feared dead in the worst-hit provinces of Lanao del Norte, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon, in Northern Mindanao¹.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, Washi brought with it rainfall totals “on the order of 200 to over 500 mm—approximately eight to 10 inches².” By 10:00 pm of the same day, the eye of the storm was hovering above Cagayan de Oro City, also affecting its neighboring Iligan City—a 45-minute bus ride west of Cagayan de Oro.

As of December 21, 2012, the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Disaster Report states that Washi has damaged 39,404 houses and displaced 69,753 families or 385,800 persons.

Survivors

“We huddled together like a ball on top of the roof as the stinging rain and biting winds battered our bodies,” Floresa Avenida recalled as her husband handed her their children one by one.

“There were debris whizzing by us. Some of it wounded my children,” she said.

Avenido said they stayed at their rooftop in the next four hours. However, their two-storey house began to sway with the torrents. Squinting—to see through the rain—she saw their neighbors were also on their rooftops and were forming a human chain to transfer to a higher roof.

“Linking our arms, we transferred from one roof to another until we reached to the highest roof in the neighborhood,” she said.

At 8:00 am, Saturday (18 December), Floresa's heartbeat raced upon seeing an orange rubber boat approaching them. She heaved a big sigh of relief—they have made it.

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1Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD 10) Washi Disaster Report, as of December 21, 2012. (http://www.fo10.dswd.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=149)

2“...but the highest amounts are along the northwest coast, where totals are on the order of 300 to over 400 mm (approximately 12 to over 16 inches),” Steve Lang of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center reported.