REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS | Iligan Bishop Jose Ramirez Rapadas III officiates the Mass on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, to remember the hundreds who perished in Iligan City at the height of Tropical Storm Sendong (international name: Washi) on Dec. 17, 2011. (Photo by RENE PERNIA / Contributor)
ILIGAN CITY, Lanao del Norte Philippines — Eleven years after Tropical Storm Sendong (international name: Washi) hit this city and left 1,600 people dead and missing, survivors gathered at a marker in Sitio Bayug Island, Hinaplanon village, here to remember what happened.
“Yes, we have moved on but the trauma still haunts us right to this day,” said Veronico Echavez, a survivor and chair of Hinaplanon village, where 751 or almost half of the victims came from.
Echavez, the other survivors and barangay officials gathered on Saturday in the village’s Sitio Bayug Island, where a wall monument listed the names of the victims.
“We came from a Christmas party at that time,” he said, recalling the fateful night on Dec. 17, 2011. “When we arrived near a gasoline station along the Hinaplanon highway, we saw the raging floodwaters carrying thousands of cut logs and mud flow.”
He said the water kept on rising so that six of his companions decided to climb up on top of a truck, which was how he reached home about a kilometer away. “I was so tense thinking of my family at home.”
When he reached home, he said, he could no longer enter because of the rising floodwaters. He saw how his family tried their best to save themselves, including his daughter Marie who placed her 2-month-old daughter Michaela inside a plastic container to protect her from the water. “She stayed inside the [container] until the water subsided. She’s now 11 years old, a Grade 6 pupil in a nearby elementary school,” he said.
Of the 751 persons first reported to be either dead or missing in the village, only 230 bodies were found, hence, confirmed to be dead, Echavez said. The rest were declared missing.
Lesson learned
Iligan Bishop Jose Ramirez Rapadas III, who presided over the Mass at Sitio Bayug Island’s Sendong monument, urged survivors to move on with their lives and to always be mindful of disasters.
Echavez also urged the public to be more vigilant during disasters to prevent casualties.
He recalled seeking the help of the military troops who conducted rescue and retrieval operations in Hinaplanon after bodies were found scattered everywhere. “Some of my relatives who were trapped were all dead,” Echavez said.
“What happened was a lesson to all of us,” he added. “Disaster preparedness is the most important matter in this new administration,” he said, reminding the villagers to prepare when a yellow warning is raised; to evacuate all senior citizens, pregnant and differently-abled persons when the orange warning comes, and to be ready for forced evacuation when the red warning is raised.