A Story of a Brave Girl- another repost

I saw this article about a child survivor of typhoon Sendong and it touched me that soemone so young was praying for someone else’s safety and not hers. This is 100% copy and paste. Credit to Minda News and the author, WIlliam R. Adan.

NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews/05 January) – It is difficult to imagine that this frail little girl of 8 years would survive the blind fury of Storm Sendong.  Abegail Jamero was swept and was buffeted by rampaging floodwaters for eight hours in pitch dark at the advent of the storm on 16 December 2011 in Cagayan de Oro City. How she tamed her fears revealed her character.

 

SURVIVOR. Eight-year old Abegail Jamero, of Sitio Cala-cala, Barangay Macasandig in Cagayan de Oro City. When the floodwaters were rising fast late evening of December 16, 26 members of her clan climbed to the rooftop, ten of them children. Abegail is the lone child survivor. . Abegail’s photo taken during Christmas in the house of her grandpa “Papa Willy” in Naawan, Misamis Oriental. MindaNews photo courtesy of Willy Adan who wrote the story on Abegail’s ordeal.

Abegail is the daughter of my nephew from a failed relation. She stayed with her maternal grandparents, together with her siblings Mizha, 11 and Gerald, 9, in Sitio Cala-cala, Barangay Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro City. Their mother married another guy and had a two-year old son with him. This, notwithstanding, the three kids continued to receive financial support from their biological father and had remained close to his family.

 

Mizha and Gerald are still missing and are already presumed dead. The body of their half-brother was found on the shores of Alubijid, Misamis Oriental. Abegail’s grandparents were plucked alive by rescuers near Iligan City. Her mother, stepfather and an uncle were rescued in Camiguin. Her eight other relatives are still missing to this day.

Abegail spent Christmas 2011 with us in Naawan, Misamis Oriental. This is her story.

WRA: Exactly what happened on Friday evening (December 16)?

Abegail: The rains kept us all together in the two-storey house of my grandparents – my lolo and lola, my elder sister and elder brother, my aunt and uncles and my small cousin who occupied the first floor of the house. Mama and Papa (stepfather), who were residing in Kauswagan, dropped by for a visit with my younger brother that afternoon. There was merrymaking as the rains kept them from going out. They were eating, drinking and singing with the Karaoke.

WRA: It was raining the whole day. Did you not think of a possible flood at all?

Abegail: The house was strong and tall. In past floods, we simply gathered our things and moved them to the second floor.

WRA: At what time were you aware of the floods that evening?

Abegail: My other uncle in the neighborhood came at around 7 p.m. advising us to move out immediately because the river had swollen and the waters were rising fast. Someone looked outside but returned to continue singing.

WRA: They continued singing despite the warning?

Abegail: Yes, they only stopped when the light blinked and the power was gone. Then after a while, we heard a terrible sound, roaring and crashing. We felt the rush of cold waters into our feet. All of us ran outside. A ladder was leaned on a tree and we started climbing up to the top of the tree and to the rooftop of our house. All 15 of us were on the rooftop at no time at al.

WRA: No one was left below?

Abegail: None. We were all up and safe from the rising waters. Suddenly, however, there was a loud crashing sound. A post of something and a big log came banging together on the house and walloped it from its foundation. Then we started floating. We were huddled close to each other on the rooftop. I stayed nearest to my mama, brothers and elder sister.

WRA: It was raining hard and it was dark. Were you still able to see people and things around you?

Abegail: Yes, maybe their outline. But I saw things moving around us.

Eight year old Abegail, the lone survivor among ten children on their rooftop the night of the floods. MindaNews photo by Willy Adan

WRA: How long were you together on the roof and what separated you?

Abegail: I don’t know. Everything was so fast. But when we were approaching a bridge, the water began to rise and fall like a big wave. Then all of a sudden a log and an uprooted tree hit our rooftop and we were thrown to different directions. I found myself hugging a branch of a tree close to my aunt, her two year old boy and my brother Gerald clinging to her side. We were floating together for some time. She instructed me, “Abeging, no matter what happens never let loose of your hold on this tree. Don’t be afraid of the snakes. Just ignore them. They are just as scared as we are. Pray, Abeging, keep praying.”

WRA: There were snakes around you?

Abegail: Yes, they were crossing here and there. One, about a meter long, clung to a branch beside me. I just closed my eyes to avoid it.

WRA: What happened to your Aunt, your brother and her kid?

Abegail: Aunt Apple was  nine months pregnant and attending to my brother and her boy strained her. A familiar man, apparently our neighbor, drifted close to us and I asked him to save my aunt and the children with her. The man replied: “Strive to save your lives as I am also striving to save mine.” After saying this, a log hit him on the head and he immediately disappeared.

My aunt struggled hard to remain afloat, burdened by the two kids. All of a sudden, a wood hit her on the chest which momentarily loosened her grip on the boys. She lost them to the whirling currents. In her condition, Aunt Apple weakened easily. In a little while, she said goodbye to me. She said,  “Abeging, I am already very tired. I won’t make it, my dear. Just hold on and continue to pray.” Then she sank and disappeared. I was now alone and was terribly afraid for the first time. I cried and cried and cried until I felt very sleepy. I prayed hard and then remembered nothing.

WRA:  What happened after that?

Abegail: I supposed I had fallen asleep for a long time. A shower of pebbles woke me up. Some guys threw me those pebbles probably to determine whether I was still alive or already dead. I asked for help and they scampered for the rescuers who were just nearby. It was around 5 o’clock in the morning the day after the floods. People said I was washed ashore in Punta Bonbon, Cagayan de Oro.

WRA: Abeging, you alone survived among the kids in the family. Did you pray hard for your own survival?

Abegail: No, I was praying for the survival of my Aunt Apple, her boy, my elder sister, my brother and my mother – for all of my relatives, of course.  But, at one time, I particularly prayed hard for the safety and survival of my Aunt and the boys with her. I pitied her so much. I thought it was OK for me to drown as long as they would survive. But they all perished and I survived. It is very sad.

[Abegail spent Christmas with us in Naawan, Misamis Oriental, until her return to CDO to join her mother at the Macasandig Elementary School Evacuation Center before New Year’s eve. 

Abegail is in Grade 2 at City Central Elementary School, Cagayan de Oro City. She was a bronze medalist in Grade 1.

I finally made contact with Abegail’s mom on January 3.  She informed me that there were actually 26 of them on the rooftop of the house of her mother that fateful evening. Her cousins across the street joined them just before their own house was swallowed by the rampaging floodwaters.

Of the 26 family members and relatives, 11 survived the tragedy, two bodies were recovered and 13 are still missing to this day. Of the 10 children in the doomed house, only Abegail survived to tell her own story.

The survivors include Abegail’s mom and stepfather, grandparents, an aunt and five uncles.

Abegail now stays with her mom and stepdad in a rising tent city in Upper Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro)

 (The author, William R. Adan is former chancellor and professor of Mindanao State University in Naawan and  is the current alumni regent of MSU).

Just a Repost

EAGLE EYES – Dean Tony La Viña

3 January 2012, Manila Standard Today

 

Note: This is a longer version of what is published in today’s issue of Manila Standard. The print version had to be shortened to conform to space requirements.

 

Sendong and the best in us (Part 1)

 

I write this two-part column from my hometown Cagayan de Oro. This city and its neighbor Iligan have not yet recovered from the devastating impacts of Sendong with natonal and government agencies still overwhelmed and struggling to get their acts together. I repeat again what I have said countless times: while the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 was an advance by shifting the policy framework from disaster response to risk reduction, Congress’s failure to create a cabinet-level agency to lead and coordinate, at the national level, the implementation of disaster risk reduction in the country has been, pardon the pun, disastrous. President Aquino’s disallowance of spending for pre-disaster risk reduction (not a veto as Budget Secretary Butch Abad has clarified) must also be reversed; such spending should not only be allowed but it must be in fact increased. Without addressing these governance issues, the experience of Sendong (following Reming, Milenyo, Frank, Ondoy, Pepeng, and Pedring) will for  sure be repeated.

 

Policy issues are not however my topic for this and next week’s column. I plan to do that later this month in a series of short papers I will publish online in my regular Mindanews column Riverman’s Vista. This week though, I would like to begin the New Year on a positive note, with stories of grounded hope and optimism.

 

Before Sendong’s challenges, many came to help. For example, Team Albay sent by Governor Joey Salceda brought experience and expertise to help the two cities. In Cagayan de Oro, Xavier University (XU), led decisively by Fr. Roberto Yap SJ, its president, quickly responded and immediately organized massive relief operations. Coordinated in a no-nonsense manner by Fr. Eric Velandria SJ, the relief operations continue. XU also offered five hectares of prime land to survivors from the most high-risk places. As a university trustee, I attest to the sincerity and generosity motivating this offer and our commitment to build an environmentally sound and sustainable new community.

 

Indeed, before so much death and devastation, we hear also many good stories of survival, resilience and generosity – directly from survivors and from relief operations volunteers. I will share, in this column, the survivor story of Janna Faith Dagawasan, an XU student whom I know through her mother (a former student of mine when I was a Jesuit Volunteer here 30 years ago). Next week, I will write about insights and lessons shared in two “focused group discussions”  (conversations I facilitated); one with a group of young Cagayanons (in their early twenties) and the other with a much younger group (ages 10-24) but also of survivors and volunteers.

 

I begin with Janna’s story, which is typical of many survivors, that crucial night of December 16, 2011. She sent this account to me – entitling it “An End: A Beginning (A Near Death Experience)” via Facebook messages, in more than 10 installments, and through her cell phone, the day after Sendong. With her consent, I reproduce this in full below with minimal editing on my part.

 

“December has always been my most awaited month of every year. The Christmas season, my favorite holiday. The time of merriment and happiness. I always look forward to the family reunions and surprises. This December started well, just like what I expected. It was on the 16th and 17th that I received my most unexpected surprise: a brush with death.

 

Dec. 16, Cagayan de Oro, storm signal # 2, typhoon will hit the city at 4.15pm. The on and off rain started at 3:00pm. I was in the school having my duty at the Chem Dep’t. When the storm hit at 4.15 I was still in the office. I stayed there and studied for my 7pm prelim exam. I took my exam for only 30mins and was ready to go home. I was out of the XU Campus by 7.30pm, crossing the busy streets and not minding the rain. I ate my dinner at BBQ station. By 8pm, I was waiting for tricycle to go home to St. Ignatius, Manggaputol, Macasandig. The rain kept on falling and becoming stronger every minute. The electric power went out by 8.30 and I was still waiting for transpo. I decide to take a taxi but they were all full. Luckily a tricycle accepted my double-ride offer. I was home by 9pm. My grandmother (my mama’s aunt) opened the door for me. I immediately went to bed and dozed off peacefully.

 

At around 12 midnight I was awakened by a cold feeling beneath my bed, I heard my grandma calling me, when I opened my eyes, gosh! Water is gushing to my room. I stood, grabbed my phone and went out of the room with lola. The water is rising fast in just a matter of seconds.

 

I can’t believe my eyes, things were floating, chairs, tables, TV, LPG, computer, everything! Small things, big things. My mind was racing, God, is this flood? God, it really is flood. We rushed to the main door and tried to open it, we pulled as hard but to no avail. The door won’t open and the water is still rising. We shouted ‘tabang!’ (help!), pounded on the door as hard as we can, to no avail. I started to panic. When a light, maybe from a flashlight, hit the glass window above the door, we felt a flicker of hope, maybe the rescuers are looking for us. I uttered ‘Lord, please help us, please’. My lola prayed to Mama Mary in the middle of our shouts for help. Thoughts are racing in my head, the water is already reaching the ceiling. God, I don’t want to die yet, not like this. We don’t have means of escape. I looked at the glass window at the top of the door, too small, we won’t fit in there. I decided to do what I thought was best – I swam to the window. I broke it with more bottles. I tried to go out, forcing myself to fit. Miraculously, I was out in just seconds. The water was pushing me away, luckily I grabbed a piece of wood and held on to it for dear life. I looked around, my grandma is still in the house, I shouted for help again, I shouted my soul out, I cried my soul out, my grandmother is still in the house. I urged her to swim to the window, she swam, I tried to pull her out, but she would not fit. I tried to shout for help again, the neighbors were also helpless, saving themselves too. I heard my lola say ‘Ginoo, pasayloa ko sa akong mga sala’ (Lord, have mercy on me for my sins”). Those were the last words I heard, and the water went up.

 

I prayed that my body will not lose energy and that my mind will not black out. I looked for ways to climb up the roof. I saw a bamboo tree at the edge of the roof, somehow my hopes went up. I used all my energy to swim to it and went up the roof. I felt very weak, like fainting. I curled like a baby, speechless, I can’t believe everything. I hoped that tomorrow I’ll wake up and find that everything was just a dream. But it was reality. The cries for help around me were real, so real, so eerie, it was like hell. The neighbors exchanged encouragements, this will pass. The water slowly subsided. We patiently waited for the sun, the hope. All the time I was on the roof, all by myself, so alone, but I survived. I survived. When the roads could already be seen,  Good Samaritans rescued me. I was given clothes and food, comforted by people I did not know.

 

I don’t know how I survived, but I know God wanted me to survive. I haven’t shed tears yet since the tragic event. I don’t know why. Maybe I don’t know how to cry or what to cry for. What I know now is that God gave me a new life, a new beginning. I still don’t know where to start, but I will, maybe tomorrow. I will be resilient like the bamboo tree. Death is a stealer, but I stole mine back.”

 

Janna’s story speaks for itself. It is heartbreaking because it involves the death of a person many of us in the Xavier University community knew well: Nieves Baculio Pacana Vda de Arcadio, 68 years old of St Ignatius Village, retired XU Agriculture librarian and mother of three, including philosophy professor Lalot Arcadio Rivera whom I knew as a first year XU student and who also gave her permission to identify her mother and share this account. Above all however, this is a story of courage and faith, Mrs. Arcadio’s and Janna’s. On the latter’s Facebook timeline, on December 18, a day after she was rescued, one reads this simple post: “Thank you Lord, for my second life.” And on December 20, Janna affirms: “Lord, we trust in you.” Indeed, the acts of Mrs. Arcadio and Janna, to use a phrase that I will explain better in next week’s column, can be best described as “the best in us”.