As you all know by know, I have survived the big typhoon. I am definitely getting to see the best as well as the worst parts of living on a tropical island. Palawan was on the edge of the storm, so they didn’t experience the worst of it. In general, I have been told Palawan is the safest area in the Philippines in terms of storms. It is on a different fault line then the rest of the Philippines and just doesn’t seem to get as affected as the other islands.
There is some damage here in Port Barton, and I have heard a few people in town have had houses flooded and possibly destroyed. A couple of guys from a neighboring island had gone out fishing that day and as of yet haven’t been seen or heard from. I think people are just happy it has passed because there did seem to be some pretty worried people in town on the day it hit.
At no point did I ever feel in danger or worried. Because I have limited internet access, I don’t tend to waste my valuable online time looking at the news, so I didn’t even know about the storm. It wasn’t until I was having breakfast on Friday when one of the staff told me I needed to prepare. Huh? Prepare for what? She struggles a bit to communicate in English, so I finally got that I needed to prepare my things because they may move me to a place at the back of the property. That’s when other people started to arrive for breakfast and had been online or got messages from friends and family telling them about the storm.
It’s interesting in these situations because you really get to see how people are different and how they react differently to news of impending danger. You get to see what your first reactions and thoughts are. One girl could not get off her phone and kept updating us on the headlines that read “Worst Storm in the World”, “Winds of 300km/hr expected”, “The Philippines Not Prepared for Big Storm”. Another girl’s first thought was to contact her family to tell them that she loves them. Though I understand that this is how they were dealing with the possible crisis, for me I just wanted to know what I needed to do at the moment and get busy doing these things. It’s not that I wanted to downplay what was about to happen, or I didn’t care about contacting my family, but I wanted to deal with what we needed to do instead of thinking about “what if . . . . ” This reaction really surprised me as I am the queen of “What if . . . . ?” questions (right B-Rod) as well as the master at worrying about EVERYTHING!!!
The staff wasn’t really sure what they were going to do with us and the manager wasn’t in town. There was a wooden house at the back of the property where they were going to have us stay. It would have been fine, but we decided to go to David’s house (our yoga teacher) as he is higher up, his place is concrete and it isn’t as surrounded with palm trees filled with coconuts. David had gone to Puerto Princesa for the weekend and we tried to text and phone him, but no one could get a hold of him. We actually still haven’t heard a thing from him, but have been here long enough to just realize this is how he rolls! So, the 3 of us (and 2 kids) staying down here along with a couple from Britian who are staying in the cabin beside me that we have gotten to know headed up to David’s to basically squat at his house. His partner’s family lives in a house just down the hill from them, and when we rolled up, they came up to help us board the windows, turn on the power (he runs on solar power) and brought us food. It was an unexpected, totally nice gesture.
It actually didn’t get too bad up there. We were all waiting for super strong winds and constant heavy rain, that never really did show up in that area. The worst part was not sleeping (we were all in a closed concrete room on the floor), being eaten alive by bugs (I think I have more bites on my body at this moment than I’ve had the whole almost 2 months I’ve been here), and one of the kittens that the boys have “rescued” (ask me about that later if you want to know – it’s a bit of a controversial topic amongst us) ended up peeing and leaving a deuce on my sheet. At that point I deserted the concrete room for the more open (yet still closed off) upstairs where there was an empty hammock with my name on it (and I actually slept a bit).
We arrived back to Deep Gold Resort yesterday to see the damage that had occurred. Like I said, Palawan (and Port Barton specifically) wasn’t the worst hit, but it is still hard to see people’s homes lost or destroyed. I have heard from both my cousin and mom letting me know that the rest of the family here in the Philippines is fine, so that is good to know. I haven’t actually heard yet what the actual damage around the Philippines is, but am hoping that it was not as bad as they were anticipating it would be.
The scenes before the storm – the waiting and not knowing is always the worst part!
Deep Gold was moving stuff out of the way of open spaces to prepare.
Waiting for our ride to take us and our supplies to David’s house. I didn’t even think of bringing any food. Not sure if it was because I was being optimistic and not planning on being there long, or if I couldn’t think that far in the future. I just knew we had been told to get to higher ground, so I was anxious to get moving.
Who knew we would get to have a feast. My plan was to bum some bananas off someone!
Good thing we brought the Brits along. This is what was in their emergency overnight pack : )
Getting cozy and ready for our sleepless night of being eaten alive by bugs.
The scene on our return the next day to Deep Gold.
What it looked like around town.
The majority of boats had been pulled out of the water.
Someone’s property looked like a swamp.
The decapitated palm tree by our place.
There seemed to be a local swimming party when we got back. I think everyone was just glad it was over.
The new hole in front of my house.
The view from my deck pre-storm.
The view from my deck post storm.
I'm glad you are okay and that the community wasn't hard hit. What is it with you and danger? The bombing of Seoul, and now this!
Love!
Keep the updates coming, Rocky.
Relieved to hear you are safe & sound and the locals are looking out for you.
Jilbag
So glad to hear that you are all alright Rox! It has been great reading your posts and following along with you on your journey. Your one of the bravest people I know. Becky 🙂
So glad you're okay RB! 🙂
Susan
Been thinking about you – glad that you're ok and safe! Looks like you're having a great trip otherwise! 🙂
Trudy