Last December 16, 2021, typhoon Rai (local name Odette) hit the different provinces of Philippines. The first landfall was in Siargao Island at 1:30 PM, the second landfall was in Dinagat Island at 3:10 PM, followed in Southern Leyte twice at 4:50 AM and 5:40 AM, and twice also in Bohol at 6:30 AM and 7:30 AM. It reached Cebu at night and did the landfall at 10:00 PM. The following day at 2:00 in the morning it made landfall in Negros Oriental. The last landfall of Odette was in Palawan at 4:00 in the afternoon.
The said typhoon brought torrential rains, violent winds; landslides and storm surged in different places in the Philippines but most especially in the places where it did the landfall. After the typhoon there were many families left without houses, they lost their livelihood and even some of their love ones, there was scarcity of water especially drinking water, no electricity and many establishments were destroyed.
Our two communities of Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in Negros and in Cebu were also affected, we had damages in our houses and we had no electricity for almost a month. It was a providence that, in Cebu we have just recently open the water station project and there are enough stocks of drinking water for the community. Because of that, the sisters didn’t have problem to get drinking water but their concern was how to help other families also to get water to drink. Since there was no electricity it was impossible for the community to produce water at that time, but then the providence of God poured out. There were people helping the community to make possible to produce drinking water for the people and the sisters were able to produce more or less 2000 5 gallons bottles container of water. It was a privilege for the community to help people greatly affected by the typhoon.
At this moment Philippines is still in recovery, there are still some places, even here in Cebu where there is no electricity because of the big damage, but the situation is a little bit better compared right after the typhoon.