Frenzy to rebuild hits Lucena City

THE RUSH to repair or rebuild homes in Lucena City following the onslaught of Typhoon “Glenda” is evident in the brisk sale of coconut lumber in many shops, like this one that suddenly finds itself swarmed by customers. DELFIN T. MALLARI JR./INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

LUCENA CITY—In a sign that people here can’t wait to get back on their feet following a disaster, throngs of residents formed queues at coconut lumber stores to buy materials to repair houses damaged or build new ones to replace those destroyed by Typhoon “Glenda” shortly after the storm left.

The urge to rebuild, and do so quickly, has brought brisk business to coconut lumber traders who are now having a field day selling their stocks.

“Business is good because there are lots of destroyed houses,” said one lumber store owner who asked that he not be identified.

“Our lumber is much cheaper compared with commercial lumber,” he said.

The lumber that dealers here sell, however, is not from anywhere near this city. It comes from Tacloban City in Leyte province, which was all but wiped out by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” last year.

Good sale

“Cutting coconut tree into lumber is prohibited in Quezon,” the store owner said.

He said as soon as Glenda left the city early on Wednesday, he was forced to open his store to accommodate the throngs of city residents wanting to buy materials for home repairs or construction.

“One of them even fetched me from my house and forced me to open my store,” he said.

He said he was surprised when he saw the big group of waiting buyers when he arrived at his store.

Until Thursday, coconut lumber buyers continued to form a beeline in front of the rows of wood store near the train station here.

“I can’t afford the price of commercial (lumber), which is too steep for an ordinary government worker like me,” said Angelo Perez whose one-story wooden house was destroyed by Glenda’s 150 kph winds.

A board foot of coconut lumber sells for P15, or just a fifth of the cost of commercial lumber, which sells at P75 per board foot.

But the coconut lumber trader said he might be forced to increase prices slightly due to the extra cost of renting power saws and hiring operators to cut coconut trunks into lumber, which became necessary as a result of increased demand.

“I could not operate my cutting machine due to lack of electricity. Hiring power saw entails added production cost,” he said.

Enterprising souls

In the city, some enterprising residents gather storm debris, particularly tree branches and trunks, to turn them into cash.

Mario de la Paz, a construction worker, said he looks at fallen trees as a source of extra income.

With his saw, ax and sharp bolo, De la Paz cuts branches of fallen trees scattered on the road and cut them into firewood pieces.

“After a few days and some sun drying, the firewood is ready for sale,” he said.

As soon as Glenda left the city, Tomas Veloso, a street junk collector, and his two sons also started searching for trash and storm debris that they can turn into cash.

“There are lots of scattered iron sheets in the street blown by the strong winds from faraway houses. Most people look at the trash as garbage but to us, that’s money,” he said.

A kilogram of iron sheets sells at P7 at the neighborhood junk shop, he said.