‘We still have hope’: Survivors celebrate Christmas after typhoon Rai | Environmental News

A powerful typhoon swept across the Philippines, killing nearly 400 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Father Ricardo Virtudazo is in a water well in his church hit by typhoons in the southern Philippines, and giving a Christmas Mass this year to dozens of devotees who wished for new roofs, food and good weather this year.

Since the Rai super-typhoon cut through the archipelago, killing nearly 400 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, they have survived after the disappearance of their homes and family – and organized festivities.

“The most important thing is that we are all safe,” said Joy Parera, 31, who was attending Christmas Mass with her husband in the parish of San Isidro Labrador in Alegria, on the northern tip of Mindanao Island.

A light rain wiped out the ruined church pews and white tiled floor, and Typhoon Rai was left with a wide hole in the roof after the area was destroyed on December 16.

Devotees who wore masks gathered inside a church full of Christmas decorations and prayed for a better year.

“We still have hope,” Virtudazo told AFP.

“Despite the catastrophes they suffer, they still believe in God.”

Christmas is one of the most important events in the Christian calendar, and in the Catholic-majority Philippines, families usually gather to share a meal.

But the widespread devastation in the southern and central regions of the country has diminished the celebrations as many survivors have demanded drinking water and food.

The islands of Mindanao, Siargao, Dinagat and Bohol are among those devastated by the storms, which dumped electricity, ripped off roofs, crushed wooden buildings, knocked down an electric concrete pole and uprooted trees.

‘corrupt’

The size of the damage, the lack of mobile phone signals or the internet in many areas, and the response of COVID-19, which was exhausted by government coffers, were hampering efforts to distribute aid.

Nardel Vicent said his Christmas wish was for someone to help him buy a new roof for his Alegri home after Raik broke down.

Unemployed and with little money, Vicent said his family would not be able to prepare a festive meal this year.

“In previous years we used to have spaghetti, pork, chicken, which we were able to afford among ourselves,” the 38-year-old said.

But he added: “All right, we’re alive. It’s better to welcome Christmas with a dead person.”

Marites Sotis usually serves meat, spring rolls and salad for her family.

“We’re not going to have that this year because it costs a lot of money,” Sotis, 53, told AFP in the coastal town of Placer, which has been torn down by most of his family’s coconut trees.

“We’ll settle for spaghetti.”

Some survivors in the nearby town of Surigao have been on the roads begging for money and food from motorcyclists who have been spending their days after not receiving any part of government support.

Inaga Edulzura, 41, said she hoped to get a packet of spaghetti to prepare for her family. Otherwise, they would “settle for sliced ​​bread.”

“Our only request for good weather on Christmas Day is to cheer,” he told AFP.

“That and some food.”