The Great Catastrophe in Northern Mindanao

                Typhoon Washi or locally known “Bagyong Sendong” the worst typhoon in the world blows some parts of Northern Mindanao particularly in Cagayan de Oro city and Iligan city. Eight days before Christmas when Bagyong Sendong strikes Northern Mindanao. The people there starting to notice the strong wind and heavy rain in the early morning of December 16, 2011 but they never thought that it would cause a big flood.  Waters and logs coming from the mountains flows towards the main rivers caused the overflowing and the breakdown of one of the bridges of Iligan city. The places near those rivers like Isla de Oro in CDO and brgy. Hinaplanon in Iligan City were the greatly affected areas. And according to the local Government of Iligan City this tragic was the first to happen in their place. As of how that happened there are a lot of speculations how this signal number 1 greatly slams both Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City and dispatched the life of almost 1,500 and still counting and still thousands are missing as of the moment.  The local government of both cities And the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are still pointing fingers on each other on who to blame.

                Despite of these devastating happenings this situation brings out the best of the kind hearted citizens who continually giving donations and hard works for the people affected in this calamity. Many people coming from different state of life are helping one another to provide the needs of the people who are still suffering until now.  Evacuation centers are still providing according to their needs especially in water, food and clothing. The local governments had also schedules of stress debriefing in order to lessen the trauma of the people especially the children.

                This is a hard time for the people living in that situation to celebrate Christmas and New Year.  The government had an idea to give them a noche buena package and some cash card. For some evacuation centers they organized a small party for the kids in a way that they could also lessen the sadness that they were encountering. But the only wish they had for Christmaswas to relocate them in a safer and comfortable place as fast as the government could. The national governments give hundreds of millions for the both cities for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the facilities that are destroyed because of the typhoon aside from that there is also a fund intended for the relocation and building of houses for the people who lost their houses and properties. The international society is giving also money and this is also intended for the livelihood program.

Despite of that they are still thankful that they were still alive even though some people lost their family or love ones. It is hard for them to start a new life, a new beginning because that disastrous event can never be deleted in their minds. But still life goes on .Everybody have a chance to move on and face the coming days to come.