Give a Hand and Pray

When there's no one to hear your call for help,  no home to go back to --  there is something you need to embrace what is only  left,  to be strong to survive.   A survivor was asked  where he's  going and  answered with confusion like  he's walking nowhere   in the midst of tsunami hit-like zone showed hopelessness in his face. It was the day  after  the storm  and  he couldn't grasp the horror,  a real  scene or a  nightmare while sitting on top of the debris of flattened home.  I wasn't  there to witness but  I  could feel the agony.  I could feel the pain.    I've  watched the videos of  the most devastating typhoon, Yolanda, (Haiyan).  Just looking at the images  almost gave me a feeling of hopelessness too.  But out  of the hopeless situation,   there is still a light of hope from a survivor's story,  a  reason  why he made it through the storm.


The nation prepared for the strongest storm to land in the country.  Other provinces  in Visayas  were also directly  hit and   almost  80%  or properties were washed away  but   less casualty was reported.  What happened to Tacloban  was  beyond everyone else's  imagination and disaster was beyond  off scale.  Literally, storm surge now means  ocean  water  that  goes to the land.   On the day of the storm,  the boats  washed  ashore  while  human bodies  swayed into the ocean.  There were some warnings about  up to 7 meters of wave heights, flashfloods and landslides  but it was a disaster and no one could exactly tell about  how  much preparation is needed  until  caught  by surprise by the  storm.  We learned  what "flood"  means  from   Ondoy and now learned what "storm surge" means from Yolanda.

The president declared last night a  state of national calamity.  Mr. President gave updates and  thanked   international communities and  foreign countries who pledged for help.  In this time of grief,  the help and  donation coming in from different groups or individual is an indication  of hope, knowing that  there is empathy message in unity  and  this calamity will be over,  if not soon.

Help  and prayers  are  all that we can do.  Let us  pray for the survivors to embrace what  is only left with them now, to stay strong and survive.   Let us pray for  those who did not survive the storm  to find peace for their soul.  Let us pray for the volunteers and rescuers enough strength for their mind and body to handle and deal the situation on the  brink of catastrophe.  Let us pray  to guide the conscience of   public officials and those handling donations to spend  up to the last cent of  the  fund fairly and evenly  where it is intended for,  the survivors.

Let us all unite and  stop blaming why it all happened, question lack of preparations,  the curse of  the  government  or  the microwave pulse.  What  we can  do  right now,  and I think  the  best that we can  do  is give a  hand  and  pray.