His name is Romulo Balagbis, 73 years old, from Barangay Siha, Borongan City, Eastern Samar.
This is what he experienced during the typhoon:
“I swam from here (pointing at their house) to the Day Care Center which is around 150 meters, for safety but the water rises so fast so I decided together with my family and co-Barangays to go up to the mountain. We stayed there from 6pm-4am. This is my first time to experience this for 73 years. We squeezed ourselves under a made–up tent during that evening till early morning. The whole community was there. We can only see the roofs of our neighbors. The water was so high, its around 7 feet high!
I’m so saddened that I lost my source of living, the palay which I just planted were washed out and the vegetables too. What hurts me most is the loss of my cow, which gave birth and lost her baby. I have nothing to give for my family (in tears). In fact, I have no clean clothes to wear, what I’m wearing now were the same clothes since the Typhoon hit our place.
Please, we need your help. We don’t know what to do and how to start again. But I thank God that we were saved up in the mountain, we were united as a community to survive.
I hope you’ll be back here to help us.”
