Bolinao A Paradise Place

I have decided to post here in my blog some of the stories I have gathered about Typhoon Emong in Bolinao. We all know how devastating the typhoon has been to the town of Bolinao as well as in Anda, Alaminos and other part of Luzon.

But behind the horrifying stories, what was left for us to do now is to inspire one another and believe that God is still good.

Here is a touching story published in inquirer on May 13, 2009

Touching

Mayor Nestor Pulido of Anda said that if there was something touching at the height of the typhoon that night, it was the willingness of people to open their homes even to strangers who were in distress.

He said owners of big houses in the villages invited their neighbors, whose houses’ roofs were blown away, to take shelter for the night.

“I was touched to know that many people were opening their homes to the victims,” he said.

Mayor Alfonso Celeste of Bolinao shared Pulido’s experience. He said some big houses in Bolinao had been turned into evacuation centers. “This was because our schools were destroyed; our church lost its roof,” Celeste said. “The best in everyone really comes out in a disaster like this.”

Pulido said seeing people help one another and take care of each other had made the disaster easier to bear. He said his town’s preparation before the typhoon helped ease the people’s sufferings. “At least, di sila masyadong kawawa (They didn’t look too pitiful),” he added.

Celeste said people should have learned a very important lesson from this disaster: “Dapat sundin na nila ang mga warning namin (They should now heed our warning).”

He said many caretakers died because they refused to leave the fish pens and cages they were watching despite the warning.

“We went around the coastal areas with a public address system to warn them that a strong typhoon was coming,” Celeste said. “Despite this, may pumalaot pa rin (some people still went to sea).”

But more than this, the Bolinao people’s experience from Emong may have been a “wake-up call.”

“Maybe, we should go back to God,” Celeste said.