The airport is very damaged. It is amazing that we are able to land. The roof is mostly gone and the floors  are flood, as it still rains often. Though I brought only a back pack, it was too heavy for carrying on and we have to scramble a bit to retrieve it as the only conveyer belt is busted.

Tacloban looks so much like Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami. Lone broken houses standing in the middle of flattened neighborhoods. 

We have a tricycle made available by people we know from the flattened Tacloban CRC church. Pastor Dwayne Thielk (former Christian Reformed World Missions missionary), Pastor Adel Gonzales (National CRCP DRT Chairman) and I all fit into the sidecar and travel the short ten minute distance to Barangay 89 (called BayBay), where we have been assigned by the municipal office. Everywhere you look is devastation. Tacloban looks so much like Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami.  Lone broken houses standing in the middle of flattened neighborhoods. Debris piled sky high as people try to clear out a space to live. I did not see any floating dead bodies, though the mayor tells me fifty-five bodies were cleared by the end of that day. This is down from ninety the day before. Many places smell, as the rain does not let anything dry out. I am grateful for the face masks I brought along.

Apparently, though, a lot has happened in the twelve days since Typhoon Haiyan hit. You can drive way further down main roads now, whereas you could only climb through before. Our first stop is to visit the family whose rare house has a large ground floor room with walls and ceiling over it still. There are three families there sleeping at night now, 13 in all. I meet Marianne and her daughters Abigail (15) and Hannah (two) who survived the traumatic four hour experience of the typhoon.  Abigail, whose English is perfect, tells me her story first.

“I was drinking my milk at 6:00 am when the strong winds came. I grabbed Hannah and prayed and my auntie told me to go their house next door because it was stronger, but when I got there the house was shaking like an earthquake. My uncle was trying to nail the windows shut but they kept flying back open. Everyone was crying. Suddenly he saw water coming so he told us to all go upstairs. Thankfully they had a second floor because the water was as high as the ceiling of the first floor (twelve feet). There were three families there. My mommy said a prayer for me not to be afraid, saying God will never leave you nor forsake you. The water was so strong. So many things were floating by, even a refrigerator that moved along like a paper boat. I was so afraid, praying Lord save me, I can’t swim.

The rain was so hard, I could hardly see my mother. She was sinking and couldn’t swim either. Then I was alone. I couldn’t see her anymore.

Then around 8:00 am, the plywood floor that we were on pushed down and we drank a lot of water. I was hanging on to Hannah on a piece of wood. The rain was so hard, I could hardly see my mother. She was sinking and couldn’t swim either. Then I was alone. I couldn’t see her anymore. My sister had a lot of blood on her, and her eyes were rolled up into her head. I cried and cried, I thought she was dead. Without my mother anywhere around and my sister dead, I thought what was the sense of living. Still I prayed Lord if you are Lord, save us. There were plenty of woods hitting my head, and I saw so many dead bodies floating by. I saw a house floating by full of kids crying save us. I wanted to help but I didn’t know what to do. There were many houses floating by.

Then I heard a man shouting and I landed on the roof of the orange house that had a third floor. Someone pushed me up, it was my uncle. He carried Hannah up who was like a rag doll. My mother and other sister Nicole was there. They thought Hannah was dead, but after three minutes, she cried.  I thank God because we got all separated, and I thought we would all be drowned."

With tears, Abigail’s mother Marianne confirms the story from her perspective. It was around 10:00 am that they all found each other. Her husband was away in Okran in a hotel, experiencing something similar. Today they are thanking God that their whole family of five is alive. They had a life and death experience and they are thanking God every day, trusting Him in everything. Their attitude is not that God punished them, but rather that God loves them and saved them. Little Hannah had a fever for three days, but she was fine after that, sitting in front of me. 

After hearing the story of this thankful family, we needed to head to the centre of Tacloban, eight kilometres away, where the OCHA cluster and the two star hotel that the advance team has miraculously been able to find. We are six now so the tricycle is not enough. Though some public transit has been restored, we can’t find any so we flag two vehicles down and are able to meet the mayor at the municipal office. He thanks us and shares his own scary story. He is a Christian man, as is his wife. He shared the Hillsong lyrics that he sang during the typhoon, and his wife next to him quoted Psalm 91.  

I end the day with a meager rice and pork soup meal at one of the rare restaurants to be found, cooked by a sidewalk vendor with three simple Rubbermaid tables and chairs. We are considered regulars, since our advance team arrived already Nov 15th. It is the only reasonable place our team knows to eat, and after not finding anything for two days, they were thankful to have found this dinner hangout. There is a quietness about as we are walking home, due to the curfew that still exists from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM. At night the city of Tacloban is in darkness; electricity has not returned.

Our hotel, though, has a generator, and there is some cell coverage–though not everywhere and not for all carriers. Thankfully I bought a dongle modem and am able to get on the internet and get this story out. My husband is much happier knowing we can communicate. I even Skyped him and my parents and my granddaughters. So, I can’t ask for more than that. Roof over my head, food to eat, and talking with loved ones. These are big comforts compared to what so many people have here. 

Thank you for your care and support,

In Christ,

Grace Wiebe

Senior Disaster Response Manager
World Renew Disaster Response & Rehabilitation