Concentrating on other things apart from the coming storm was already impossible for me by November 7 -- the eve of Yolanda. Since I knew I was just going to be useless if I went to the office, I decided to stay home and keep posted on developing events.
By this time, Yolanda was virtually roaring over the edges of the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). She has already escalated to a Category 5 cyclone, and CNN was going over the top with its fearful forecasts for when the super typhoon makes landfall in Tacloban City and Guiuan, Eastern Samar. Words like "catastrophic," "apocalyptic," and "massive" were constantly used in relation to the coming super typhoon, and this only added to my anxiousness.
There was a brief respite that day from all things Yolanda-related -- the first appearance of pork barrel scandal queen, Janet Napoles, in the Senate hearing related to alleged misuse of the pork barrel fund. By the end of that well-publicized hearing, people were quoting Napoles' overused lines, "Di ko po alam (I don't know)" and "I invoke my right from self-incrimination."
However, just moments exactly after the Senate hearing ended, then came the announcement from PAGASA, the Philippine weather bureau, that Yolanda has been upgraded to Signal No. 4.
And this massive weather disturbance was barreling toward Eastern Visayas at more than 200 kph per hour, Estimated time of Yolanda's landfall, early morning of the next day.
Funny though -- in Tacloban, my family was looking at the sky and noted that apart from the occasional clouds, the weather looked far from a Signal Number 4 upgrade.
Nevertheless, I told my family not to underestimate the storm's strength. The storm upgrade was supposedly meant to be an early warning for residents of affected areas to take the necessary precautions.
Speaking of precautions, I gave my daughter an extra instruction that she only understood after the storm hit.
I requested her to take pictures of our rented bungalow before and after the typhoon.
She was too confused to take the before pictures. She never got to take the after pictures.
(To be continued)
Video from Youtube
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