Typhoon Ompong was an extremely powerful tropical cyclone that hit northern Luzon and damaging millions-worth of properties in several regions.
With sustained winds of up to 285 km per hour, it was the strongest storm to hit Northern Luzon since 2010, and the strongest nationwide since typhoon Haiyan in 2013. It brought along swaying high-rises, broken windows, flash floods, and catastrophic landslides. Despite the fact that the devastation of typhoon Haiyan occurred only in recent memory, this typhoon brought over 100 heart-wrenching fatalities mainly due to landslides in Itogon, Benguet.
With sustained winds of up to 285 km per hour, it was the strongest storm to hit Northern Luzon since 2010, and the strongest nationwide since typhoon Haiyan in 2013. It brought along swaying high-rises, broken windows, flash floods, and catastrophic landslides. Despite the fact that the devastation of typhoon Haiyan occurred only in recent memory, this typhoon brought over 100 heart-wrenching fatalities mainly due to landslides in Itogon, Benguet.
With millions more affected, TYKFI quickly took to its adopted schools’ community of Sta. Cruz Ilocos Sur to give assistance to homes that were either partially or totally damaged by typhoon Ompong. The staff made an initial verification survey of the damaged houses based on the list of affected victims submitted by the municipal DSWD office. TYKFI was able to screen 25 households with totally damaged houses and 54 partially damaged.
Majority of the recipient families belong to the marginalized 4Ps whose breadwinners are either contractual farmers or laborers. Some are poor senior citizens or persons with disability without stable livelihood. Since their incomes are barely sufficient for their day to day needs, they are in dire need of outside assistance, and could hardly conceive of having their leaky, disarrayed, and damaged homes repaired into bare decency. The following are some of the few surveyed circumstances of the recipients:
Felix Abaya is an 84-year old retired farmer and resident of Barangay Camanggaan, whose modest home is on a tight space at the edge of the cliff. He lives alone beside his children, whose home was also affected. His children supports him while working as a factory laborer, neither could afford the repairs needed.
Antonio Dugay is a 60-year old contractual farmer of Fortune Tobacco and lives in the forest fringes of Barangay Camanggaan. His seasonal income means that he has to wait a long time to have his damaged home repaired. He lives with three other members of the family and plants palay as well in a 1.78 hectare property.
Alican Langcay Pinto is a resident of Barangay Poblacion Este, having moved there from Marawi, Lanao Del Sur. His income comes from small business trading activities, and the Foundation helped fast track the repairs of his totally damaged home. He is delighted and thankful on behalf of his family since their home had most of the Yero walls blown away.
Tirzo Cortez is a farmer and tenant of nearby rice fields. A resident of Barangay Paratong, he and his family of six at the moment lived in the house of relatives as their modest home was left in shambles by the typhoon. His seasonal income made it difficult enough to feed his large family, so that his home was in complete disarray during the visit.
Anita Lacaden, an 82-year old Cebuana widow, lives in Barangay Turod who barely has a guardian in life. She lives on someone else’s lot on a small makeshift-nipa and Yero hut. Her support is derived from gathering firewood in the forest. Her home being located in the forest fringe is susceptible to being wiped out from flash floods. Her home was totally wrecked by the typhoon.
Jessie Ragandap is an Ilocano resident of Barangay Turod, and his children are the Foundation’s occasional beneficiaries from Sidaoen Elementary School. After the typhoon, there was nothing left of their house as it was completely brought down to the mud. They were able to salvage a few things from the wreckage, but according to neighbors, the family was completely devastated and could not possibly think of a way to rebuild their home.
Norma Antolin, a resident of Barangay Pilar has lived in her home for 40 years. She is supported by her children who are fishermen. Norma at age 68 shared her deep sorrow as she could barely conceive how she can start her life over again. Sea-level rise and torrential waters caused a large portion of her home, which is near the sea, to fall apart at the foundations and be set adrift onto the beach and sea waters.
Ernesto Vergara Manzano is an 80-year old ailing resident of Barangay Pilar. His home barely had any walls and roof left on the second floor after the typhoon. Living alone, bedridden and being supported by his children, they can barely make ends meet as their income mostly goes into buying food and medicines. The current state of his home makes him even more susceptible to heavy rains, and extreme weather and typhoons that climate change may bring about.
Melchor Barnedo is a 40 year old farmer and resident of Barangay Poblacion Norte whose home was completely flattened by flash floods from a nearby river during the typhoon. He lives with his four children, and he and his wife were busy picking up the pieces from the wreckage during the survey. Disheveled and discouraged, they tried to muster up the courage to begin to put a roof over their heads again. They already put up new pillars which they salvaged from the old house. What was left of his farming efforts as well were just a few cassava plants which they planted on some borrowed land.
This disaster response project did not only rehabilitate the windswept residents of this community, but also quickened their healing and recovery, providing them with decent shelter from drastic weather challenges which time and waiting may not necessarily bring about. The Foundation provided secure building materials such as sturdier GI sheets, plywood, lumber, and construction nails. It also nurtured community resilience through the “bayanihan” spirit. Since the Foundation asked the residents to be responsible for their individual labor needs, many neighbors whose homes were unaffected and who had carpentry skills came together to help their neighbors especially those who are ailing senior citizens as well as those who are mentally-ill beneficiaries, involving even at times their Barangay captain to mobilize the rebuilding help. During a gathering with the recipients, residents called this “Gamal”, or their own local version of the bayanihan spirit.