After the storm

Most of the victims from that fatal train accident that happened in Padre Burgos in Quezon were still unburied when Typhoon Unding slashed Southern Tagalog and Bikol with her wrath and fury. In two weeks time, we had two disastrous events that hit our nation. Bikol’s saga is not a stranger to these horrible train accidents and ruinous typhoons. While typhoons are natural, train tragedies are caused by the ineptness in the railway administration. We can only prepare precautionary measures to the coming of these tropical depressions and yet no one can stop those petty thieves from stealing those nails for the sake of some cash. And yet like a thief in the night, Typhoon Unding trapped us in moments when we are about to sleep and catch our dreams. After two hours of vigil, the typhoon left us with a list of dead and missing persons. Houses, schools, government buildings and other properties were destroyed, electrical posts and trees once standing tall and proud were twisted and uprooted. Classes in all year levels were suspended, buses were also stranded, cell phones suddenly lost their signals, and we find ourselves again groping in the dark.

When I was a child, I prayed that typhoon would come more often. For it means a longer vacation. Typhoons induced me into slumber. And yet, going home last Saturday was the longest travel I took from Naga to Iriga and I realized that typhoons should hardly be imagined much more to long for it. I waited for about an hour at the terminal and left by 11:00 am and reached Iriga at 4:00 p.m. I had prayed all the mysteries of the rosary, read every news bits of an old Inquirer I found in my bag, but still the van hardly moved because of the longest traffic jam I witnessed in my life, from Del Rosario to Pili. Nonetheless, I took refuge and drew inspiration from the people I saw in the road, trying to build their houses already, cutting the large trunks of trees and cleaning their grounds. The Bikolano spirit was alive! Tragedies, at times bring out the best in us. It tests us and proves our endurance and ability to cope with life’s misfortunes.

Tragedies teach us better and yet bitter lessons. In my light moments, I came to think about that texting, for a time, was replaced by a more personal and thoughtful communication. Instead of texting with each other, we find time to see and talk with each other, telling our own experiences of Unding while eating pinakro or linubak. And it’s free! We don’t have to bother ourselves of losing a signal, load or low battery.

Young men and women who are studying or working in Naga strived to catch a ride even though vans were very rare, just to go home and see their families. Parents who were so engrossed with their jobs had the time at least to be with children. And hopefully, the typhoon had also destroyed those textbooks in our public schools that contain erroneous historical facts and details.