Typhoon Egay

     The broadcast on TV seems scary, a super typhoon named Egay is expected tomorrow to enter Philippine land mass. Memories of super typhoon Haiyan(Yolanda, local name) bringing tidal waves in, killing thousands of people especially in my home province of Leyte, the easternmost province in central Philippines, in November 2013, remain fresh in my mind.

Warning of super typhoon 

     I grew up in this island of Leyte prone to typhoons facing the vast Pacific Ocean in the east. Many cases in the history when my classes were suspended due to the typhoon. I remember arguing with my mother to go to school since I have not heard announcement from the school authorities that classes have been suspended even if one can feel the strong wind.

     As a kid, I used to love typhoons. When the typhoons came, we stayed indoors. Usually it's a 24-hour ordeal and always the electricity is cut off. After the rains and wind, the sun comes out. That's when we would go out to see the damage to our farm and I would love picking the young coconuts that was felled by the wind. It was simple pleasure getting the young coconuts and eating them. Now there are very few coconut trees after typhoon Haiyan which rendeded this place barren. Few coconuts are now sprouting and seems no one is seriously replanting. The coconut industry I would say is dead unlike during my time where we grow them, harvest them and convert them to copra, the dried kernel we sold to traders.

There's a slight wind now

    The typhoon is expected tomorrow to have the landfall although the news says it's eye is focused in the north, Catanduanes and Cagayan. However, this is a super typhoon so we are feeling the wrath of the wind about 2000 kilometers away across the sea. I am praying this typhoon won't be devastating as the community has recovered from the traumas of super typhoon Haiyan in 2013.