2 Q3: Have you personally experienced calamities or super typhoons? A3: When I was 12 years old and in 6th grade, I experienced Typhoon Nitang4. I remembered it was during the month of September. What I recall was that we have a two-storey house which was damaged. We were not able to recover any thing from our house. At that time, they told us that it was tidal wave, not tsunami or storm surge. That is only a small knowledge from the community when we were not yet familiar with storm surge. Our community was severely hit— we did not have electricity and water at that time. We were located in a coastal area and I recall that the wives of fishermen were waiting beside the coastal shores. There was one fishing vessel, composed of fifteen (15) fishermen, which overturned. They were hoping that their husbands would survive, but only one (1) turned out alive. There were no formal responders during that time. Only their fisher folks were looking for them for rescue. After four (4) days of rescue operation, dead bodies were retrieved. Q4: At such a young age you experienced such event. What did you feel at that time? A4: It was a horrifying experience. I was afraid seeing our neighbors crying when they confirmed that the retrieved body was their father or brother. For such a young age, I had trauma from a typhoon for recalling myself homeless, no electricity, no enough supply of food, no kitchen utensils to be used for cooking. I remembered that we hollow out our clothes and some other appliances in the mud that were thrown out fifty (50) meters away from our house. Q5: Other than Typhoon Nitang (internationally known as Typhoon Ike), were you able to experience any disastrous typhoon of late? A5: Yes, I experienced super typhoon Yolanda or Haiyan in November 2013. Q6: Can you please share your experience when super typhoon Yolanda or Haiyan hit your place? A6: Yes. I was actually nervous at that time because of the trauma I experienced back in 1984 with Typhoon Nitang. I did not want to undergo the same experience, especially because I have kids now and I do not want them to experience the same horror. As a mother, I want to protect them so that they would not feel fear. I also have an obligation towards the community because they rely on the information from the DRRM Council or what our office gives. People were calling me at that time to cater to their needs. When electricity was cut off, what I did was to reach out through text messages to people I know in Albay in order to get an update on the direction and intensity of super typhoon Yolanda. 4Internationally known as Typhoon Ike which hit the Philippines in 1984