‘Yolanda’ was not the first

“Yolanda” was not the first supertyphoon to hit  Tacloban City, its neighboring towns in Leyte and Eastern Samar, and other parts of the Visayas.

There were two other typhoons as strong as, if not stronger than, Yolanda that also brought thousands of deaths and severe destruction in their wake.

Screamed the Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, New South Wales) in its headline in October 1897: Typhoon and Tidal Wave in the Philippines, 7,000 Lives Lost.

Here are excerpts of the report:

“Mail advices, brought by the steamer Gaelic from Chinese and other ports in the Far East, contain details of the fearful destruction wrought on the Philippine Islands by the typhoon and tidal wave during October.

“It is estimated that 400 Europeans and 6,000 natives lost their lives, many being drowned by the rush of water, while others were killed by the violence of the wind. Several towns have been swept away.

“The hurricane first struck the Bay of Santa Paula, and devastated the district lying to the south of it. No communication with the neighborhood was possible for two days.

“The hurricane reached Leyte on October 12, and striking Tacloban, the capital, with terrible force, reduced it to ruins in less than an half an hour. The bodies of 126 Europeans have been recovered from the fallen buildings. Four hundred natives were buried in the ruins. A score of small trading vessels and two Sydney traders were wrecked on the southern coast, and their crews drowned.

“The Government prison in Tacloban was wrecked, and of the 200 rebels therein, half succeeded in making their escape. The town of Weera was swept away by flood, and its 5,000 inhabitants are missing.

“Thousands of natives are roaming about the devastated province seeking food and medical attendance. In many cases the corpses were mutilated as though they had fallen in battle, and the expressions of their faces were most agonising.”

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On Nov. 30, 1912, the Washington Herald shouted in its headline: 15,000 die in Philippine Storm.

Excerpts of the Washington Herald story:

“The typhoon swept the Visayas and is said to have practically destroyed Tacloban, the capital of Leyte and to have wrought enormous damage and loss of life (sic) at Capiz, the capital of the province of Capiz.

“Tacloban has a population of 12,000. Capiz has a population of over 20,000.

“The first news of the catastrophe came in a dispatch from the governor general of the Philippines. No figures of the dead or injured were given, but it was stated that probably half the population of the two cities had been lost.”

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Ping Lacson, “Yolanda” rehabilitation czar, should take to heart the reports cited in rebuilding Tacloban City and other places battered by Yolanda.

History should not be made to repeat itself in the devastated places.