A Glimpse of Cagayan de Oro after Tropical Storm “Sendong”

On final approach from the AirphilExpress plane landing at Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro (CDO), one can see the debris of the devastation of this City floating up to two kilometers in the sea off the coast of CDO and Iligan City.  This was the result of the seemingly meek Tropical Storm ‘Sendong’ with winds of only 95 kph that struck the cities of CDO and Iligan last 17^th of December 2011.  Seeing the debris from 1,500 meters high, it would be difficult to detect whether there are still dead bodies floating among the debris or survivors from the devastating flash floods that careened down the Cagayan river and claimed more than a thousand (1,000) lives with many more missing. The final figure may never be known but it was surely much, much more than the 747 fatalities during the famous typhoon “Ondoy” that hit Metro Manila a couple of years back and left it flooded for a few days.

Surveying the damage brought by these flash floods that reportedly rose up to 30 feet in some places, it is believable as debris was littered on the bridge that was indeed of this height which proves that the reports were true.  You could see the mud on the rooftops of some houses that were built near the bridge indicating that the raging waters rose over the rooftops of these houses.

Thankfully, electric power was restored soon after, although water was scarce in most places in the city as portions of the main water pipes were washed away by the flash floods.  It was estimated that it would take weeks for the water supply to get back to normal.

Large groups of bodies were found floating offshore. These came from those living along the banks of the river that did not expect the flash floods to occur around 2:00 in the morning when most of the city were asleep. Some 200 bodies were found in the sea along clumps of debris from houses and illegally-cut logs coming from the mountains of CDO and beyond.

Amidst the misery, however, there were glimpses of miraculous survival.  A mother and her two young teenage children survived by clinging on to the trunks of large banana trees for 2 – ½ hours in the raging floods.  A family of four climbed up to the roof of their house only to be washed away by the torrent of waters but miraculously found each other floating in the sea several hundred meters from the city’s shore-line clinging to pieces of debris from the houses that were washed away.  A group of 70 people were rescued by a yacht among pieces of debris in the sea around a kilometer off the shores of Iligan City, some 90 kilometers west of CDO.

After some five days from the time Tropical Storm ‘Sendong”, signs of the devastation still can be seen with the mud in the city turning into dust. Debris still litter the streets, broken-down cars still caked in much can be seen at the car repair shops and pieces of plastic and cloth ‘fly’ in the breeze on the trees that were once underwater.  People still line up at water sources to both get water and take a bath whenever they can.

Thousands of pesos worth of relief goods and millions of pesos were pledged to assist the victims of Sendong coming from various cities, municipalities and provinces.  The president of the Philippines, Pres Aquino went to visit CDO last Wednesday and pledged more funds to the disaster-stricken areas.  Back in Cebu, you can see trucks with relief goods and signs of which organization organized their relief efforts.

More importantly, the resilience of the people continues to prevail and believe that there is something brighter after the storm.