Heroes rise among volunteers

DENNIS Capaycapay (right) stands with humanitarian volunteer Scott Kroehle (middle). Capaycapay single-handedly saved 15 kids from the storm surge. SHIENA BARRAMEDA

Ben Linde, 32, nearly lost his clan when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) struck Palo town, Leyte province, on Nov. 8.

“I sometimes find myself staring into space because I get emotional, knowing that almost my entire clan was killed by Yolanda,” Linde said in an interview on Sunday.

Tired and stressed, he kept his grief to himself to fulfill his duty as media coordinator of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Eastern Visayas.

He counted 46 clan members who had become casualties of the monster typhoon. The bodies of the 29 were laid to rest in a mass grave in the town plaza after he identified them among the 300 retrieved last week.

Seventeen other relatives, mostly cousins of his, have remained missing.

Vicente Flores Tomazar, director of the OCD-Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), who is now working with OCD personnel in Eastern Visayas as responder for Yolanda’s victims, said he admired how people like Linde did their best to overcome grief so they could serve the residents of the Visayas.

They rose to the challenge by reporting to work since Day One on Nov. 9 after Yolanda left their homes and families devastated, Tomazar said.

Scott Kroehle, 31, of Cleveland, Ohio, who is with Volunteers for Visayas (VFV), said he came back to the Philippines after two years, specifically to help his friends and adoptive Filipino family, the Gapates, who were affected by the storm surge in Barangay 64, Tacloban City.

Kroehle met his foster family in 2011 when he was on a mission to teach children of poor families.

The American arrived on Dec. 6 and went looking for them and his friend “Palab” who, he said, was rheumatic and very poor. He was able to find the family alive and well but had to rush Palab to the hospital after hurting his knees in a fall while struggling to leave his house during the storm’s onslaught.

After helping clean the Gapates’ house, Kroehle joined other VFV members in clearing the creek near Barangay Mahayahay of debris to prevent flooding when it rains. Floods have been occurring because three boats were washed inland from the coast by the storm surge, blocking the flow of water.

Driver Dennis Capaycapay, 38, was deemed a local hero by residents in his village in Tacloban after saving 15 children and adults during the storm surge. “I heard the wave crash into the Tacloban airport before it hit us,” he said.

The father of two girls had the presence of mind to tie his children and those of his neighbors to floating logs before finding a speedboat they could use. The children’s ages range from 3 to 8.

“I thought they were dead because some of them were no longer breathing. They were revived when I put them inside the speedboat. I think the warmth did that,” Capaycapay said.

He bravely swam past fallen trees to guide the boat. He even came back for some adults who were brought to the trees by rushing water.

Now, Capaycapay has joined Kroehle and his brother-in-law Danny Solla in VFV.

Solla, whose home was also washed out, said he was thankful that his family survived the storm. He now works for VFV, without expecting pay, to clean the waterways and streets.

“I’ll help others before myself. That’s how we should think during times like these,” he said.