Walking the Streets of Destruction

I have spent the last year hearing stories of the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda. They have talked about evacuating and returning to destroyed homes, staying in their homes and having it crumble around them, loss, pain, need.

A year of hearing about this devastating event and how they have struggled to recover has not hardened my heart to their pain.

Yolanda set the bar extremely high for storms in the Philippines. Ruby has been compared to Yolanda in every way: in strength, in size, in direction and in devastation. Some people have even written the storm off because- well it wasn’t nearly as bad as Yolanda.

This week I stood amongst the rubble of Laah’s house as she said, "Yolanda was not the worst. This was the worst for me."

Just days after the storm, I walked into a community that I had been to in July. I remember the community as being a really cute little barangay. Walking the streets there were beautiful flowers around people’s homes and occasionally you could see a break through the homes to carabao resting by rice fields spreading out in the brightest green splendor.

I couldn’t even recognize the community.

On the team with me was Michael, who had been with me through this community before. The look on his face reflected the expression that I could feel on my own. It was a mixture of shock and blankness as we took in what we saw.

Floods and mud had completely changed the atmosphere. Homes were completely gone, trees were down, the road was at some places completely filled with debris- much of it the remains of homes. Belongings were everywhere, everything encased in mud. Some houses still stood while others leaned a bit precariously, left unstable by the force they had withstood.

Ruby was the worst typhoon this community had experienced.

Our team had just distributed tarps and within an hour families were putting them up for shelter. As we walked through people thanked us for being there and thanked us for the relief supplies that we had just given. Looking around, it felt like so little compared to what these families needed.

Watching the Filipinos in the last year has taught me of their resilience and strength, of their faith and determination, and of their ability to carry on and rebuild. It gives me hope for those that have now been devastated by Ruby. While it seems hopeless now, they will continue forward, help will come, and hope will not be lost.

I am glad to have been a part of bringing help and hope to theses battered communities. They remain in my prayers as their struggles are just beginning. Livelihoods along with homes have been lost and there is a long road to recovery ahead.