I was at an event at One Ayala last Wednesday to say hi to a CEO and stalk one source. I only stayed for a bit because I needed to bounce to a cocktail event in Shangri-la BGC. The distance is less than 4 km and the drive normally takes 12 mins.

But nhoooooo… That drive took me more than an hour! The entire McKinley Rd from Edsa to 5th Ave was frozen! 😭

Suffice to say I was really late to the BGC event.

Christmas rush is already here. 🫠

I got home at 12 midnight. 😵‍💫 Then I drove back to Makati yesterday (Thursday) to have dinner with some editors and some executives of the company that hosted the dinner.

The traffic is the same: horrible.

I wanted to browse a bit but…

I’m tired.

I took time off yesterday because I didn’t sleep from Sunday night until the rains abated at 5 am Monday. The winds were still strong, the tailend of Typhoon Uwan.

The editor from the land of bubblegum pop, however, was lacking in tact and I didn’t like how she took my emergency leave. Like she was saying I was already off for more than a week and then I’m off again. I told her I worked my ass off last week. It’s just that today the government has declared a national state of calamity. Let me rest.

I complained to a Pinoy colleague that this is the problem with people who have never experienced catastrophe upon catastrophe: they lack empathy. I think people from the land of bubblegum pop do lack that because they’re so comfortable in their world that they forget that people outside their bubble struggle immensely.

Now the Caraballo and Cordillera mountain ranges are tearing apart the Cat 4 typhoon’s center.

I guess the worst is over for us here in the south as Uwan weakens. We still have power and water pressure. Batangas and Cavite are not doing well though. Some Transco lines are down.

Praying for those in the north.

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The typhoon has yet to land on Aurora province but we’re now experiencing very strong wind that is now whistling. Come evening it would be howling.

After church service at noon, I went out to buy fresh veggies and fruits. Then I saw the street dogs. I went to 7-eleven and bought dog food packs to feed them. They will have a very rough night ahead of them.

I was thinking of driving around the campus to feed stray cats but the winds are getting more violent.

I have to decide now if I should go or not. While there is still little daylight.

It’s cold outside. I hope all the stray animals are ok. 🙁

We’ve also prepared old clothes for donation.

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I remembered that it’s the 12th anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). The catastrophe that taught me how to read satellite images and gave me PTSD.

@kmjs

Ngayong araw, ginugunita ang ika-12 na annibersayo ng pananalasa ng bagyong Yolanda sa Pilipinas. Libo-libong buhay ang nawala dahil sa trahedya. Panoorin ang buong ulat DITO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpaR3s7LMJo&t=488s

♬ original sound – Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho – Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho

I started publishing reports about Haiyan when it was just a Cat 3 typhoon in the Pacific. I didn’t sleep overnight when it made landfall as I kept publishing reports from the ground. I keep getting feeds from broadcast colleagues who were there before the typhoon landed.

I stationed myself at Villamor Airbase, reporting on the relief efforts and the evacuation of those who had nowhere to go. I was thinking of joining the other journalists who were allowed to fly in a C160 but feedback from colleagues made me think I wouldn’t be able to do much reporting because I won’t have a land vehicle.

I was the first one to report about the storm surge that hit Robinsons Tacloban as I was getting info from the ground while I was in Manila.

When I finally got my editor’s go signal, I drove from my mom’s house and left my babies with them. I drove for 13 hrs straight to reach Sorsogon. I dropped dead in an inn near the port. I was with my ex-husband and a friend who worked with a Japanese NGO, carrying a generator, relief goods, our own food and supplies. The next day we drove for another 12 hrs or so to stop in Catbalogan and proceeded to Tacloban and met some TV colleagues. For two weeks we drove around Samar-Leyte giving aid (with some local church-based charity org and my own network’s foundation), and searching for and writing stories.

I talked to first responders and the horrors—oh the horrors that greeted them when they crossed San Juanico bridge. Interview upon interviews, documentation upon documentation. Non-stop.

No wonder the stereotype of heavy drinking, chainsmoking journalists pervade public consciousness. It’s how we cope with traumas and extremely stressful situations. During those weeks on Ground Zero I wanted to chainsmoke and drink myself to death.

The stench of rotting humans and animals stayed with me for months and months. It wreaked havoc in my brain. I couldn’t write for six months.

I was so depressed but I didn’t know it at that time. Reporters Without Borders already warned journalists that we who went straight to disaster zones should be debriefed. There was an article about journalists who covered the Banda Aceh disaster/tsunami suffering from PTSD. I ignored it, thinking that I’m not going to be affected.

Wrong.

Such hubris.

✅ Drum for water

✅ Full gas tank for my car

✅ Fresh bread

✅ 10 L of gas for the Honda power generator for my mom’s house

I asked my cleaning lady to disinfect my buckets and remove all things in my yard and utility area that could be blown off by 212 kph winds.

According to some meteorologists that I follow, it is unfortunate that there are two high pressure areas that are pushing down the super typhoon further southwards. Landfall is now likely to be at Baler, Aurora instead of Tuguegarao. It means Central Luzon will be a direct hit, Metro Manila will sustain huge damage. If NCR is paralyzed, the whole country stops.

What happened to Cebu during Typhoon Tino was basically a man-made disaster waiting to happen. Mountains were denuded and there are too many mining activities in the area that loosened soil. Cebu can’t absorb that amount of rainfall.

We’re blessed that our mountain is a protected area so the rainforest is there to absorb that rainfall. The question is, how much can it absorb? Like 200mm of rainfall for hours?

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I had to attend this large conference to get as many stories as I could because I anticipate that I wouldn’t be able to gather news by next week due to the super typhoon.

I think I have three or four stories with me now. It will be just a matter of whether or not I will have internet and enough battery power to allow me to write and submit stories.

After Uwan/Fungwong does its business in almost the entire Philippine archipelago, it will then wreak havoc in Taiwan. The center is expected to fall on Isabella-Aurora by Sunday evening to Monday morning and cross to Taiwan on Tuesday. Given its sheer size, we can say the entire Luzon will be ravaged over the weekend.

Learning from our experience with Typhoon Kristine last year, I am more prepared now. After I had dinner outside of the hotel, I went straight to Landmark Makati to buy a wash basin for my kitchen sink and a pail with lid to store clean water for washing dishes once we lose power. It’s more hygienic this way instead of disinfecting my wash basin and buckets that had been hanging around my utility/laundry area downstairs for two years. My laundry area is exposed to the elements so—you get my drift. Even though we have a water tank that could provide us with potable water for 3 days without replenishment, my house will still be waterless because I need power to boost water pressure so it will reach my second-floor dwelling.

Tomorrow I will drive to a nearby town to buy a skinny but tall water drum to put in my bathroom so we can have water to flush our toilet for number 1. We can bathe and do number 2 in my mom’s house because her 2 downstairs bathrooms don’t need high water pressure. Plus the toilets are connected to her rain water reservoir so there’s plenty of water for flushing. My sisters’ second-floor bathroom hasa a water drum that would last them a few days.

I also stocked up on candles and lighters. My only problem now is that my freezer is full. If I won’t have power for a week, my meats will get spoiled. Good thing I have a Styrofoam cooler but it is a question of whether I can buy tube ice for it.

My Bluetti battery pack could power my modem, a USB lamp, and my DC-power Acerpure air circulator. It can also charge our laptops and phones. It will last us a few days without solar charging. But assuming that the sun will start shining on Tuesday, hopefully we can juice up everyday so we can have emergency power indefinitely.

I just hope that my roof will not be torn off and the glass window panes will not be hit by flying GI sheets and whatnot.