LEGAZPI, Philippines - Early Sunday morning, as the rain and wind continued to batter Legazpi City, authorities in the regional capital of Albay province - just north of where Typhoon Hagupit had made landfall Saturday - announced that the eye of the storm had passed through and was moving on toward Manila. Almost immediately, the first wave of families, who had fled their houses for the protection of schools, churches and other evacuation centers, packed up and carried their meager belongings home.
But home for the Bayonitoses is 'the danger zone' - a 50-foot strip of shoreline closest to the sea and most exposed to storm surges. Last year, after the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan, a new law made these zones off-limits to any inhabitants. But the government turns a blind eye.
'We have no place else to go,' said Neomida Bayonitos, who lives with her husband, Raymundo, in a plywood shack they share with three grandchildren and a fighting rooster. 'This is our home.'
Even as the wind howled through the bowels of the shantytown and the rain fell in sheets, Neomida Bayonitos felt relieved. 'I was very afraid of the big waves, like the ones in Tacloban last year, but I'm not so worried now,' she said, knowing that Hagupit - also called Ruby - was moving on.
But what would she do if another monster storm approached? 'We've learned our lesson from Tacloban,' she said, where thousands died or went missing after Haiyan's 20-foot storm surge engulfed the city. 'Now we listen when the barangay (local) leaders tell us to evacuate.'
'The storms are definitely getting worse', added Raymundo. 'We've been here for almost 40 years. Before, there were big storms, too. But now, they are so big they wash away the houses.'
Not this time. Typhoon Ruby turned out to be much weaker than expected when it hit Samar province, just to the south of Tacloban. There were no deadly storm surges, as so many had feared. Damage was minimal. Legazpi had dodged a bullet.
Still, some said they're worried about all the rain - up to 2 feet - that has fallen in the region since Saturday. 'I'm afraid of mudslides and lahar,' or volcanic mudflow, Norma Babalusa said as she placed a half-dozen small, salty fish in a plastic bag behind her food stall, nearby.
'If it rains any more, there'll be lahar slides from Mayon,' she warned, referring to the active volcano near Legazpi's city limits and the mix of rain and volcanic dust that turns as thick as mud.
Babalusa, a mother of two, whose husband is too sick to work, spoke as she worked by candlelight. The electricity had been cut throughout Legazpi to protect against the danger of wet power cables. When asked why she came to work even though the driving wind and rain would surely keep customers away, she laughed nervously. 'If I don't work, I don't sell. If I don't sell, I can't feed the family.'
She wasn't alone. Under a tin and tarpaulin covering, dozens of other evacuee families had ventured back to their modest stalls, laying out their wares, mostly fish. Along this unlikely main street, a group of small boys ran by, laughing as they splashed through the puddles in their flip-flops. Babalusa smiled. 'This is normal weather for us,' she said. 'It's nothing exceptional.'
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First published December 7 2014, 4:07 PM
Jim MacedaIn a career spanning 40 years, Jim Maceda has covered more than 100 countries and many conflicts, terrorist attacks and natural disasters, as well as cultural and human interest stories. He has interviewed dozens of world leaders. Over the years, Maceda has reported from the front lines of Rhodesia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Chechnya, as well as on the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, including NATO airstrikes in Serbia and Kosovo. He is the veteran of scores of embeds in Afghanistan and Iraq, doing stories on the U.S. Army, Marines and Special Forces as well as insurgents and civilians torn apart by war. Since 1999, Maceda has been based in London.Maceda was named NBC News' Germany correspondent in 1994, based in Frankfurt, from where he covered Eastern Europe, the Bosnian civil war and peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia and Haiti. In addition, he covered major breaking news in Iran, Russia, China and the Middle East.In 1990 Maceda became the NBC News Moscow correspondent, covering an array of stories from the Soviet Union and Russia, including the attempted coup on then-President Mikhail G. Gorbachev and the fall of the Soviet Union. In February 1992 Maceda became the first foreign TV correspondent to gain access to a secret nuclear city in Siberia, named K-26, which housed the biggest plutonium weapons factory in the former Soviet Union. Maceda also covered the civil war and the failed U.S. peacekeeping mission in Somalia.Maceda was based in Manila from 1988 to 1990 as an NBC News Asia reporter and producer. He covered a wide range of datelines, including the Cambodian War, the Burma Revolt, the Drug War in Colombia and the Panama Invasion. In 1989 he won an Emmy for his reporting on the Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing.From 1984 to 1988, Maceda was a senior news producer in London. During that time, he was part of the first U.S. television team to cover the devastating famine in Ethiopia. In 1988 he won an Emmy for his coverage of the Palestinian Intifada, or Uprising, the same year he made his switch to on-air reporting. He also served as the acting bureau chief for NBC News in Manila in 1986, during the People Power Revolt and fall of Ferdinand Marcos.Maceda was the deputy bureau chief and producer for NBC News in Tel Aviv from 1981 to 1983 where he covered major events including Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, its handing over of the Sinai to Egypt and the 1982 Lebanon War. While in Beirut, he produced the heralded 17-part 'Lebanon Diary' series.Maceda got his start in journalism as an associate producer for CBS News in Paris, from 1973 to 1976. As a freelance reporter and producer for French TV from 1976 to 1980, he was the first to secure a joint interview for a European TV network with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat after the Camp David Accords. In 1980 he joined NBC News' Paris Bureau as an associate producer and researcher.Maceda has won numerous awards and citations, including an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the 7/7 London terror bombings, seven Emmy nominations, four Overseas Press Club awards, and three National Headliner awards. In 1991 he received the Olive Branch Award from Columbia University for his stories on Russian nuclear proliferation. Maceda has had the distinction of reporting exclusively for two, long-running news series on 'Nightly News with Brian Williams': 'Putin’s Russia' (2007-2008) and 'Far From Home' (in Afghanistan, 2010-12).Maceda graduated from Stanford University in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He then pursued post-graduate studies at the Paris Sorbonne. He is married to Cindy Lilles, has a grown daughter from a previous marriage, and is the doting grandpa of three young girls.
Posted by Unknown on Monday, December 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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