'Ghost of Tacloban' weeps, recalls typhoon horror

by David Dizon, ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 12/09/2013 6:12 PM | Updated as of 12/09/2013 6:12 PM
MANILA – Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez on Monday broke down in tears as he recalled how he and his family survived the onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in Tacloban.

Speaking before the post-disaster assessment at the Senate, Romualdez said he had to climb to the roof of a building and hide as the typhoon destroyed his city and almost killed his family last November 8.

The mayor said that before the typhoon hit, the local government had already canceled classes for November 8 and started evacuating residents near the coastline.

He said the city engineering office also secured the roofs of school buildings since the structures could only withstand 160 kph winds and not the 240 kph winds brought by the super typhoon.

Romualdez said it was difficult to explain to residents what a storm surge is because they were more prepared for a possible tsunami.

“Most of our actual evacuations in the past were tsunami warnings and that was clearly understood by the public. It was difficult also for the city government to determine if you say storm surge of 4 meters, what is the strength? Is it going as far as 100 meters inland or going to go as far as a kilometer inland? We were aware of the height but we could not determine the strength,” he said.

He said that on the night of November 7, his government was still evacuating people who kept going back to their homes to get things before going to the city’s 29 evacuation shelters.

‘Mayor, there is something unusual happening’

On the morning that “Yolanda” hit, Romualdez said he was still doing patrol as was his practice every time that a major calamity would hit the city.

He said that at 6 a.m., he received a call from a task force that was stationed on an island that was sometimes used as a launch point for rescuers who help fishermen.

He said one member of the task force told him: “Mayor, there is something unusual happening. We don't know if it is low tide but apparently, the water is going down.”

He said he immediately went to Patio Victoria near the shore and has a good view of San Pedro Bay.

"When I was there, the tide was low and I got a phone call from my wife and I was surprised because she was supposed to be in the downtown area in a building there with my children. But she called me and said she was in our old residence which is near the airport. So I told her, in fact I was very careful not to scold her because I was afraid she might get up on the car and try to go to another town. I told her: 'Brace yourself, secure the kids. This is a very very powerful typhoon.' During that time, the winds were blowing so hard. And I said stay put," he recalled.

The mayor said he received another call but was unable to answer after the glass windows in the Patio Victoria ballroom exploded.

"It was so powerful and it became very dark. So we couldn't get out anymore. I was pulled inside the room. There were about 14 of us. The other 7 or 8 ran out and the door burst open with water just coming in from all over and we were forced to go up the ceiling, through the ceiling and through the roof. The roof was about 20-24 feet high and the whole roof was shaking because we felt the winds were pounding on the roof. As we were there, metal pieces of the roof were flying. That's when I saw there was no more land. Everything was water," he said.

'Bodies all over'

Romualdez said he and his staff members stayed on the roof for an hour and 45 minutes while gale force winds tried to blow them away. He said they had to shout at each other just to hear themselves above the din.

He said that when the water receded, he climbed down the roof and started running to their old residence near the airport to look for his family.

An ABS-CBN report earlier described how Romualdez's wife, Cristina Romualdez, and their kids were able to survive the storm by punching a hole through the ceiling of their old home and climbing on top of the roof.

The mayor's wife said her husband was even given a pair of pants that allegedly came from the looted shopping mall in the city.

In the briefing, Romualdez said he was shocked by the destruction left behind by super typhoon Yolanda. He said there were bodies all over the city, mixed with debris and vehicles that were swept away by the storm surge.

He said he hitched a ride with a military vehicle and saw Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and some of his own men who were surprised to see him alive.

When he asked why they thought he had died, his own men said they saw Romualdez staffers being swept away by the storm surge after securing Mrs. Romualdez and the kids. The bodies of the 2 staffers were later found on the other side of the bay.

A CNN report earlier dubbed Romualdez as the "Ghost of Tacloban" after some residents said he had died in the typhoon.

The mayor said he admitted before Secretary Roxas that he had lost everything in the typhoon.

"I lost everything at that time. I mean the only thing I saved was the clothes I was wearing, my children and my wife. We lost everything. We didn't even have a car," he said.

He said that when he attended the first post-typhoon assessment meeting at 7 p.m. last November 8, all the officials present were in shock.

"It was common to everybody not just the LGU but the national agencies that were there, everybody was a victim. Everyone was in shock," he said.


Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/