Young ‘Yolanda’ survivor still groping for answers

‘YOLANDA’ SURVIVOR Melvin Castro sits in the rubble of his home in Tacloban City where 18 of his family members were killed. Four months later, he is still looking for answers. RAFFY LERMA

The search for the answer to one question keeps him going.

When Melvin Castro lost 18 of his relatives in the devastation wrought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” four months ago, the first question he asked God was, “Why did you spare me?”

“When I survived, I prayed and asked God for the reason why I was spared. Many would say it’s not yet my time. Others say maybe you still have a job to do here,” Castro told the Inquirer in an interview.

“I am still hoping to find the answer,” he said, drawing in his shoulders as if he wanted to recede into himself.

Days are still tough for Castro, a 28-year-old bachelor who would at times find himself crying when all space for thought had been consumed by pain from tremendous loss.

Only six of the 24 people in the family home at the time of the storm—Castro, his father, one sibling, two of his siblings’ children and his cousin’s wife—survived Yolanda’s monster winds and storm surge that swept away entire towns across Eastern Visayas last Nov. 8.

His mother, grandmother, five of his siblings, one sister-in-law, eight nieces and nephews, a cousin and his (cousin’s) wife were killed.

The family home, a four-bedroom, two-story concrete house, was obliterated when towering waves plowed through his village in Barangay 88 in Tacloban City, Leyte province.

Family members who survived were reunited in what’s left of the house—the floor mostly, and remnants of what used to be the house’s sky-blue walls—hours after raging waters swept them kilometers apart.

Death and destruction

More than 6,000 other people died and at least a million houses were destroyed as Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), with winds of more than 350 kilometers per hour, tore through the Visayas. The most powerful storm to hit land in history also disrupted the lives of 14 million people, who are now living in tent cities and surviving on government and foreign aid.

“I still can’t get over it. Because every minute, every hour, I always think about being together one minute then the next, they were gone,” Castro said.

“It’s not easy. Sometimes you just suddenly cry,” he said.

Castro spoke to the Inquirer Wednesday as he contemplated going back to Tacloban after two months of trying to start anew in Quezon City, where relatives had taken him and his father in for the meantime.

He traveled by boat to Manila and arrived on Jan. 8, taking on construction jobs as an “extra” on days when the crew was short. His father, guilt-stricken for failing to save his family, followed just this week.

Despite the tragedy, Castro, a devout Christian, is hanging on.

‘Little miracles’

He said he believed he survived the storm for a reason. He had seen “little miracles” that he thought saved him that day: a tree trunk that came with the torrent for him to hang on, a pack of peanuts he fished out of the floodwater when he felt too weak to push on, even a refrigerator that got swept away, where he found a bottle of water still cold enough to quench his thirst and relieve his exhaustion.

Castro took a beating in the flood and came out of it with wounds in the head and body, which healed almost without medication.

“I am trying to be strong. We don’t give up that easily. We have to be strong in the face of hardships that life brings us, strong for the worst storm that’s yet to come,” he said.

Castro is now planning to return to his village in hopes of signing up for housing programs to somehow rebuild the family home.

“I will still search for the answer to my question. To this day, I ask why it was me [who survived]. Every day, I pray to Him to show me what to do. And for those I lost, I pray to God to always give them rest,” he said.

International help

Castro is just one of millions hoping to rebound from the tragedy brought by Yolanda, a massive humanitarian emergency that the United Nations and international aid organizations have been tirelessly grappling with all these months.

Speaking in Geneva on Friday following her visit to the disaster zone toward the end of February, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief again called on the international community to sustain support for the typhoon survivors in the Philippines.

“You can see the signs of early recovery everywhere,” UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said.

A transcript of Amos’ remarks reached Manila only Saturday morning.

“But I think that we have to recognize that behind those signs of early recovery, there are still some people who are extremely vulnerable. Progress has been made, but we need to sustain our response on the emergency side and also make sure that as we transition into early recovery and development that it is done in a way that does not leave gaps,” she said.

Long-term recovery

Amos stressed the need to support livelihood in afflicted villages, particularly agriculture and fishing communities, to help foster long-term recovery.

“The task now is to continue to ensure that the most vulnerable people are included in the recovery, because there are millions who continue to need support to rebuild their lives and livelihoods,” she said.

The United Nations has been on the ground since the first day of the humanitarian emergency and is currently implementing a $788-million plan to support yearlong projects in the disaster zone, including shelter, food security, water, sanitation and hygiene, livelihood, education and health.
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