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were able to convince her and we left the house. Only our house
helpers were left to man the area.
My family and relatives were able to stay in a hotel downtown— all of
us in three (3) rooms – two (2) on the second floor and one (1) on the
third floor. During that time, I was working as a nurse trainee in a
government hospital. I just asked my family to pack me one (1) set of
clothes knowing that the situation will not be that worse.
After my shift from work, I went straight to the hotel. The night
before the typhoon, it was super quiet. As they say, “calm before the
storm.” I was on the phone talking with my dad and he reminded me
to charge my cellphone as there might be no electricity for days.
Q4: Can you walk us through the day super typhoon Haiyan hit your
place on 08 November 2013?
A4: It was 6:00 in the morning of November 8 and we heard the strongest
wind. It was the loudest I have ever heard. There were big windows
in the hotel and we were afraid as we felt that any minute the glass
windows will shatter. My grandmother and other relatives were
praying the rosary. Everyone was praying hard.
My brother and my mom went to another room with less windows so
they can feel a little bit secured from flying broken glasses. From the
place where we were standing, we saw the whole first floor of the
hotel submerged in water. All of the ground floor was just water.
When the strong rains and winds subsided, my aunt and uncle went
out to check the vicinity. They were the first ones who went out and
the rest of us were left in the hotel because we have our little cousins
and grandmother to look after. My aunt and uncle saw the extent of
the damage. You could not distinguish the roads, and dead bodies of
people and animals are everywhere.
My aunt and uncle walked to their house, which was roughly thirty
(30) minutes by car. Their house was damaged, but still livable. They
got their motor bike, which was still working at that time, and they
used that to go to the hotel and tell us what happened.
Q5: What did you feel at that time?
A5: I already knew the extent of the typhoon since we saw, heard, and felt
the strongest rains and winds. My mom was just in denial at that time.
She would not believe and even asked us to get a tricycle so that she
could check our house. At that time, no tricycle or public vehicles
were operating because everything was in disarray.
Q6: What happened next?
A6: The following day, using my uncle’s motor bike, they went to check
our house and our relatives’ houses. We were worried at that time