A Cruel First Day of Christmas: Surviving Typhoon Odette on Day 1 Misa De Gallo

by Francheska Camille

April 16, 2022

The First Day of Christmas 2021

It was the first day of Christmas, and it left a vivid picture in my mind. It was a regular day on the morning of December 16, 2021, with no signs of the storm. The news report revealed how powerful the approaching typhoon was, but we were unfazed since we assumed it would be just like the storms that had occurred in the previous months of that year. 

We misjudged the power of Typhoon Odette (Rai) since we were resilient to tropical storms. We only realized it was coming to give us an early CRUEL Christmas gift and gloom in the coming new year of 2022, after it devastated the whole Visayas in just one fateful day and night.

Inquirer.net reports:

On Dec. 14, 2021, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) announced that a severe tropical storm, Rai, had entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) and was named Odette.

On Dec. 15, Odette had gained strength and became a typhoon. On Dec. 16, international weather monitors upgraded it to Category 5, the highest level. It made landfall also on Dec. 16.

         Typhoon intensity

Based on Pagasa’s 8 a.m. bulletin, Odette has maximum sustained winds of 165 kph near the center, gusts of up to 205 kph, and a central pressure of 90 hPa. Later reports by international weather stations said Odette, or Rai, carried winds of up to 230 kph. 

According to Pagasa, the term gust refers to “a sudden, brief increase in the force of the wind.” 

“It is of a more transient character than a squall and is followed by a lull or slackening in the wind speed. Most winds near the earth’s surface display alternate gusts and lulls,” the state weather bureau said. 

The term “sustained wind,” according to the Hong Kong Observatory, refers to the average wind speed over a specific period. It stands as the basis for TCWS issued by weather bureaus.

Movement

Pagasa, on the same tropical cyclone bulletin, said Odette was last observed moving West Northwest at a speed of 25 kph.

Tropical cyclone wind signal (TCWS) number 3 has been raised in some areas within Visayas and Mindanao, while TCWS numbers 1 and 2 were issued in locations across the country.

People at risk

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Dec. 14 said over 10,000 villages are within the projected path of Odette. Mark Timbal, NDRRMC spokesperson, said these villages are mainly in the Visayas and Mindanao and some parts of Southern Luzon.

As a resident of Talisay City, Cebu, I was among the many in danger. Our city was one among those in Typhoon Odette's forecasted trajectory (Rai).

The Day of the Storm

My family had only made minimal preparations for the storm that day. My father purchased a few groceries that would sustain our family for a week or fewer. Our water jugs were all full, and we had enough water for a week in case something bad happened after the storm. 

We had enough gas in our vehicle to last a few drives, and we didn't seem to realize how much we'd need it. We made sure our phones were completely charged that day, and whenever we used them, we meticulously recharged them as soon as possible, as the news predicted that Cebu would experience a total blackout by 10 p.m.

We were completely terrified of Typhoon Odette, especially after stories surfaced that its intensity was comparable to Typhoon Nitang (1984) and Typhoon Ruping (1990), both catastrophic cyclones that struck carnage in Philippine history. 

Because I was born in 1997, my brother was just a year older than I, and my younger sisters were born in the 2000s, we had no idea how powerful the storms were. We couldn't imagine how the present storm would affect us. 

However, we've been through typhoons Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013 and Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009, which somehow gave us some sort of an overview of the storm. But what we went through back then was nothing compared to typhoon Odette, which we didn't even realize till it had passed.

The Rage of Typhoon Odette

Talisay City, Cebu, my home, is on the very path that typhoon Odette took. We started experiencing strong winds and heavy rain by 5-6 PM on that day. We would look outside our windows and doors, and the trees were shaking like crazy, and the wind was coming from everywhere. It didn't seem to be signal no.1 at all. If you were there during the chaos, you'd think the news misled us, and you have no choice but to deal with it and pray for your life.

 

Heavily reliant on the heresy, we remained calm and thought signal no.1 was bearable. But, when the clock struck 7, while we were listening closely to the TV about the blackout scheduled for 10PM and what to prepare for the coming disaster, the darkness came in a snap!

The strong winds knocked down the entire city's electric posts. None of us were ready for the sudden power outage, as we expected it to happen later that night, but it came earlier than expected. We were also complacent, thinking that the blackout would just happen for a few hours. 

The worst thing is that we forgot to prepare flashlights and candles! We couldn't see anything the entire night. We only had our phones as our last resort, but we used them to get further information through social media, and the battery power gradually lowered as it was used. Unfortunately, we ran out of data, and we couldn't communicate with anyone as the phone service was gone as well.

The strong winds came stronger as time flew by quick, and we'd hear the weird noises it made and how it shook our concrete walls as if harassing us from the outside in. 

I remember how it drummed on our doors like 10 angry burglars were breaking the door so loudly and scandalously, forcing themselves into our home. My family and I would go upstairs to close the windows, but the windows flew down our garage before we could even touch them. 

As much as possible, we tried to salvage the things we could keep from getting wet, but unfortunately, all of our belongings got soaked.

The wind never forgave even our roof, which flew to the neighbor's lawn. From 7PM until later, the night only went worse, as we couldn't seem to find the end to all the loud thuds, cracks, blasts, and the sound of the rain as it showered heavily. 

It was as if we were on a fireworks show, only it was the hurricane and not the firecrackers that made the noise. I could hear children crying from the neighborhood, our other neighbors terrifyingly crying out loud, telling the storm to stop. There was nothing we could do but endure the feeling of being under it...like living on the inside of a tornado. 

The strength of the storm was felt until 12 midnight, but per the recent posts on Facebook, there would be a 30-minute to an hour lull by that time as the city goes under the eye of the storm. The countering winds after that are not to be underestimated, for they will be stronger than the winds in the beginning. 

And it happened! It was twice stronger than the primary ravage of the storm. We had to endure it for a couple more hours. But, as soon as the loud noises eased and it was bearable enough to sleep, we tried to count the hours till dawn and put our thoughts to rest. 

The storm eased gradually, and we all slept through the rest of the hours left before the daylight came.

The Aftermath

December 17, 2021, the morning came, bringing a peaceful ambiance and a sign of hope as the sun slowly peeked through the thick grey clouds. But we woke up in a Cebu that seemed like a ghost town. 

We could still hear the creaking of the scraps of steel left on our roof, which brought us anxiety. Still scared to go out as the wind still felt eerie, we were also curious about what our community looked like. 

We headed upstairs to look at everything, and what first met us was our flooded rooms, the water flowing down the stairs with tiny broken glasses all over the steps because of the broken windows.

My brother's room, which was distorted since the stormy night before, was all soaked. Leaves from the backyard neighbor's tree were in his room and all over our corridors.

My sisters' rooms were all flooded as well, and we couldn't find a decent thing that was dry except the clothes we wore that night.

The balcony was destroyed — the ceiling was gone, the roof flipped, and all the light bulbs were nowhere to be found. 

The electric wires were all over the place, including our internet cable, where a piece of our roof hung after being dismantled by the strong winds. 

There was not a house left undamaged. Even the strong mango trees around our community were struck down and torn apart.

 

The electric posts on the highway were broken and bent down, and some were even found lying on the streets, making it hard for vehicles to pass by. 

We went to our old house, and we're so lucky to find it still intact, but my aunt's house next to ours lost its entire ceiling. 

Along the road, some houses were entirely dismantled to pieces. The entire neighborhood looked like an apocalypse.

A Broken Paradise, Our Broken Home

The traumatic sounds we heard the night of December 16, 2021, were the sounds of Typhoon Odette's poor attempt to obliterate our lovely city. We couldn't take footage as the destruction happened that night because the entire place was too dark to capture on video. We can only remember the pre-scenes before the storm that were also too blurry to picture because of the wrathful rain. We were blind witnesses as the evening's darkness broke in. 

When the storm eased, we thought our agony ended, but its aftermath is still felt to date. 

The storm ravaged the entire island of Cebu with heavy rain and fatal winds, and for over a month, there was no water and no electricity. Water for drinking was limited, and prices for basic goods hiked up as the demand peaked. 

It's painful to see my home damaged, but it's more painful to see so many helpless families who lost their homes entirely, having to fight another battle of survival even after the storm. It's like the typhoon alone was wave 1, the next days after were other waves of their own. 

Although a couple of months have passed and the city has recovered gradually, we can still see the remnants of that unforgiving storm lingering across the island. The storm took a great toll on Cebu, my home; how much more on the other islands in the Visayas? 

Truly, this is an unforgettable first day of Christmas that brought us the cruelest gift: a broken paradise, our broken home.

That cruel storm will forever be vivid in our memory because it brought us one night of complete demolition and a lifetime of pain. But one can't deny how this cruel storm showed just how resilient the people of Cebu are.