05 October 2006
LEGAZPI CITY—THERE ARE VOICES HAUNTing Alicia Dalde, 44, of Barangay Baybay this city and these were not from her imagination or dreams. They were those of her neighbors who cried out for help as huge waves slammed their coastal community at the height of Typhoon “Milenyo.”
“I heard my neighbors, those who were trapped inside their homes, scream for help,” said Dalde, whose neighborhood of at least 285 families sat near this city’s port and faced the Albay Gulf.
“That was... when the wind was already blowing violently and the level of seawater flooding our house reached up to my neck,” Dalde said as she washed donated clothes beside the rubble of what was once their neighborhood.
The scene after the storm devastated her.
“All our clothes and belongings were gone. None was left. The house that my husband and I worked hard for to build in years vanished in just one night,” she said.
It was a house built on savings that Dalde said she put together “at the expense of my health.”
“Now, I am sick, my intestines need to be operated on... but I do not have money for that. Worse is, we are now homeless,” Dalde added.
Reality, the painful one, was difficult to accept for Dalde. She thought the house could withstand the impact of the storm so when the waves started rising, the family simply left, thinking only of saving their lives.
Her husband, Henry, 39, was left behind to safeguard their belongings, but it would be a futile effort.
He watched helplessly as the waves washed other houses in the village into the sea and went on saving other neighbors when he had the chance to.
“I was trying to push our wall against the waves,” Henry said.
He heard a cry for help from neighbors and saw an entire family submerged in water. He was able to save them.
“I saw my friend being carried by the waves as he held on to the floating table that smashed him. I was able to save his life,” Henry recalled.
Hipolito Toledo, village chief of Baybay, said Milenyo had brought the worst damage to infrastructure in Barangay Baybay in the last 20 years.
He listed the damage—a basketball court, a day care center, a stage, lamp posts, and street lights that he said were worth some P1 million all in all.
At least 38 families either lost homes or suffered severe damage to their houses. They are now in an evacuation center at a school in the port.
Toledo said what they need urgently are food, medicines and clothes, stuff that Milenyo washed away as it struck.
Village officials were set to meet with Mayor Noel Rosal to discuss the possibility of relocating the neighborhood to a safer place.
They had heard of plans to relocate them, especially people living about 50 meters from the shore. The Daldes were among those strongly supporting the plan. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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