Editorial: After Typhoon Odette
The clock and calendar help the modern world in counting time and days. These apparatuses are essential for humans as they go about their everyday lives.
Time is also important in forecasting weather disturbances. Think of a weather specialist reporting over radio or television about an incoming typhoon without mentioning the time and date of the weather disturbance’s arrival in the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). People who learn about the impending storm without the specific time and date of its arrival could resort to a guessing game.
Before Typhoon Odette (international name: Rai) became a typhoon and entered PAR, the state weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) had issued weather bulletins, including the possibility that several areas in Visayas and Mindanao could be placed under Signal No. 4, the second to the highest storm warning signal.
The Pagasa also reported that Odette would affect Central Visayas, which comprises the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. Thus, several local government units in the region prepared for the typhoon by alerting their teams trained for disaster response, emergency and medical situations, and search and rescue operations. As early as Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, the Cebu City Government braced for Odette with Mayor Michael Rama’s announcement of forced evacuation of residents living in high-risk areas, or those individuals living near bodies of water and near mountains.
The time of Typhoon Odette came in Cebu on the evening of Thursday, Dec. 16. Between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., central and southern parts of Cebu mostly felt Odette’s fury.
On early morning Friday, Typhoon Odette’s wrath conjured a movie-like post-apocalyptic scenery: toppled trees, electric posts and communication towers; destroyed wooden houses and old churches; damaged concrete commercial establishments. Odette arrived in a time when people are still dealing with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Like every typhoon that had rampaged the Philippines in the past, Odette’s other twin aside from destruction was death. Odette left over 200 deaths in the Visayas-Mindanao area. Grief of loved ones is surely immeasurable.
Today is the sixth day that most parts of Cebu are still besieged by common problems that afflict a disaster-hit area: no electricity, poor internet and communication signal, and scarce water supply. Repairs of destroyed power lines are now underway.
If there is no electricity, water providers, telecommunication companies, banks, hospitals and establishments that sell food and other basic necessities are also affected. The end consumers, especially the ordinary people, would suffer.
A disaster is also a time that brings out the best and the worst of a human being. Some businesses took advantage of the situation like some water-refilling stations that charge more than the original price per gallon and generator set owners collecting P50 for each gadget charged for an hour.
These days must be a time for patience. If a place is devoid of patient people, it could descend into disarray. In the realm of human patience, one could count the time or days until everything else returns to normal. Or one could just forget that time exists.
A decade or so from now on, the time when Typhoon Odette brought about anxiety and pain will become a memory.
