After four hours of howling, spine-tingling winds, only a few buildings and houses remained with roofs. Electric posts were toppled. Trees were uprooted. The sturdy coconut trees looked beaten with leaves dangling from the top.
Of the more than 47,000 population of Guiuan, more than two thousand were injured. A hundred perished.
By Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files
Photos by Mario Ignacio IV
Yolanda survivors Lito G. Abucejo, 47, a carpenter and his wife, Rebecca, 44, marked the 100th day after the super typhoon slammed into Manicani Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, in a newly-built house.
The Abucejos have folded their United Nations-donated tent, which was their shelter the past three months, and are now living in a new structure built where their old house once stood.
The Abucejo’s new house is one of the more than 400 being built by Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC), which owns a non-operating nickel mine in Manicani.
Coco lumber felled by Yolanda are being used for the 30-square meter houses, being built on the property of the survivors. They are expected to last four to five years.
Text and photos by Mario Ignacio IV,VERA Files
GUIUAN, Eastern Samar- One week after typhoon Yolanda made its first landfall in this coastal town, residents are still in dire need of basic necessities like food, drinking water, fuel to cook their food and shelter.
They are asking for assistance to repair their houses and to buy equipment and tools for their livelihood. Fishing equipment for fishermen and farming tools for farmers.
Homes, hospitals, and schools have all been destroyed. While some could still be used after major repairs, many have been flattened and need to be rebuilt.
Security in the town also needs to be re-established.
Text and photos by Jose Bayani D. Baylon Immediately upon landing it became obvious to me that while there was a semblance of order, this…