VSU Eco-park: a showcase of native tree species. |
Typhoon Yolanda was a very frightening experience even at Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte. That's about 109 kilometers from Tacloban City. My family endured Yolanda's wrath for 4 hours -- from 5 A.M. to 9 A.M. on November 8, 2013 -- and we thought we experienced the worst of the super-typhoon.
While the world saw what Visayas went through on that particular day, we had no idea about the extent of the devastation caused by Yolanda in other parts of the region. Telecommunications were down and VSU was without electricity. There was no way for us to get news about and from the outside world. It was a very depressing situation. I was worried for my parents and for my relatives in Samar, a nearby island. No matter how desperate I was to hear from them, I had no other choice but to wait for things to go back to their normal state. For how long, I had no idea.