It was Wednesday, August 17, 2024. We were dealing with heavy rain and strong winds, though it wasn’t constant. It would rain, stop for a while, then start again.
We thought classes might be suspended, as other schools had already canceled theirs. We kept checking social media and our group chat, hoping for an announcement so that there were no orals, quizzes to happen 😂😅. But kidding aside our main worry was getting stranded at school. Still, as expected, college classes continued despite the bad weather.
I decided to finished my school works preparing for our oral examination.
Around 10 o’clock at night, I was studying outside with my boardmates. Everything seemed fine until we heard a strange sound coming from the tree in front of our house, known as the Ipil-Ipil tree but we common called it as "Batilis" here in our locality.
A few seconds later, a branch fell. We were shocked at first I even thought it was a snake! But it was just a branch. After studying, we went to sleep peacefully.
However, at around 2 AM, we woke up to a loud noise. When we opened the door, we saw that a large branch had fallen to the ground. Luckily, it didn’t hit our house or the power lines. If it had, we might have lost electricity, which would have made things harder, especially for charging our phones and studying.
We quickly informed the house owner, and she was just as surprised. She asked if we were okay and what had happened. I explained everything that occurred that night. She promised to send people to remove the branch, as it was too big for us to handle. We thanked her for being so thoughtful.
Thinking back, I realized that the branch fell is a sign to us that it couldn’t have stayed up much longer.
The owner also told us that there used to be coconut trees near the house, but they were cut down to prevent damage. They also wanted to trim the Ipil-Ipil tree, but it was hard to find someone to do it, so the tree kept growing taller.
As of now, we didn't experience rain and winds though the sky is still cloudy. I also heard about another hurricane. So, we feel a bit nervous because some areas here in Daanbantayan like Carnassa , were hit hard by the storm. Thankfully, the government are ready to help. They sent some helicopters checking the areas and delivering relief goods.
We hope and pray that everyone stays safe, waiting for brighter days ahead.