Earthquake Victims Relief Operaions

Everybody knows about what happened to Negros last week. The earthquake has left so much damage to properties, infrastructures and people's lives. Honestly, it's a bit too much considering Sendong wasn't really too long ago. But you know what they always say. These things happen without any warning. We can never be 100% prepared.

But what most people do not know is the severity of the situation of the badly-affected areas. No electricity, no water and food is SCARCE up to this day. And to make things much worse than it already is, roads and bridges are damaged so it's really difficult to reach them. It's as close to getting stranded in an island! (Update: some roads/highways are passable now BTW)

DYWC has been doing relief efforts since the recent Sendong and this time is no different. Their listeners and friends have been so generous to give some goods and water for their fellow Negrenses. I was one of the volunteers who re-packed the donations and went to the areas to deliver them last week. Compared to Sendong, it was harder this time for us to secure a trusty vehicle. Going to the areas on land meant maneuvering the rocky roads and passing through rivers. Thank God for friendship and connections, we were able to get military trucks. You couldn't go wrong with that. 

Achiever: our trusty Military Truck

Saw the damage along the way...To be honest, my pictures do not really live up to what is really happening when you see them up close. Also, I was taking these photos while the truck was fast-moving so these are the only decent shots that turned out okay. 

One of the bridges in Jimalalud

Earthquake Hits Negros (020712)

One fine day downtown, I bumped into Pat (a high-school classmate) so we decided to catch up and sit down with some fries and coke floats at McDo. It was an easy and naturally long conversation that we didn't notice the time flying by. The only thing we noticed? ONLY THE TABLES AND CHAIRS SWINGING DOWN THE FLOOR TREMBLING for about 30 seconds which felt like forever! McDo is normally full during lunch time and yes, you could only imagine different types of people with all those types of reaction!

If I remember correctly, I was able to notice (in retrospect) three different kinds of people according to their reactions. 

• First one? We have the types of people who are exceptionally calm and quite all throughout the event. It's as if someone from up above sent them a txt message a day ahead and made them sure that everything's going to be okay so there's no reason not to finish their chicken sandwich. Yes, they were very cool people who only managed to pause for a moment while the earth was shaking and with considerable poise, grabbed back their sandwich and munched on them! 

• The second kind of people are the panicky ones. These are the guys and girls who shout all of their lungs out and run like hell! They make the exit gates more congested because of their useless aggression and more importantly their sweaty underarms, which in turn would piss all the others off.

• The last kind is more of my kindred. It's basically a mixture of the previous two. These are the people who take some time to digest what is going on and then later on decide what to do.  It took me around 20 seconds (which is almost the whole length of the first earthquake) to figure out that it was something odd and then Pat and I ran outside the building. We stayed at the street for a couple of minutes more just to wait for everyone else to calm down.

Downtown Dumaguete Photo by Pipoy Equipado

Okay. This isn't exactly where we were located during that time but we were very close. Apparently, not a single one knew yet that a magnitude 7 hit the area. 

Downtown Dumaguete Photo by Pipoy Equipado

Turns out that I, together will all the others, didn't do it the right way. I later found out that the most dangerous places are the exterior walls of buildings, near sinkholes and electrical posts! Experts say that if you are inside, stay inside and if you're outside then yes, stay outside too! So I could've really died right then and there either of an electric shock or a stab from a broken glass! Or a heart attack! But that's just too morbid. (Just so you know, I didn't do any earthquake drill back in grade or high school. I think i may have skipped class or something. I only remember fire drills for some reason.)

Minutes later, news from Guihulngan (thru Sinta) came. I have a handful of family members from the town and we later found out that my Aunt's place has been wrecked, among others. Was browsing through some Facebook pics and to my horror, this is what I saw...