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Typhoon Ruping: My First Super-Typhoon Experience Before Last Year's Odette


As the first anniversary of recovering after Typhoon Odette will be arriving (December 17), I'd also write about Typhoon Ruping which happened in 1990. I was only in Kinder-1 so it wouldn't be easy to remember especially since I'm already in my late 30s. Typhoon Odette was an experience made hard but we soon had a generator, repairs soon started, and there was higher technology. I'd still think about Odette and what it was like living without solar lights, relying on that smelly methane lamp as a source of light, and studying was hard. Reading with insufficient light is very bad for one's eyes. It was also that time that everywhere, just everywhere, it was brownout, and electricity returned before Christmas. In the case of Odette, Christmas and New Year were delayed to January. 

I could remember living in an old house in downtown, Cebu. I'd say it was like living in a haunted house. The childhood trauma was there. I could think about all the shaking in that old house which I think was built around the 1950s. If all my grandparents (on both sides)  were alive--they'd either be in their late 90s or 100s by now. The typhoon caused great devastation in Cebu. It seemed hopeless. A lot of people lined up to get water from our house. That cramped neighborhood was really something. I really remembered how hot the weather was after the incident.

During Odette, it was a good thing to be invested in solar lights. At least, there was some light in the evening. It was good to have a generator (eventually) which was used to power up the house for certain periods of time. Former Cebu City mayor, Tomas Osmena, said that Ruping taught him that Cebu should stop over-relying on the national government. That's very true regardless of who the next president will be. I believe local governments should work first instead. It was when CEBOOM happened--the rise of Cebu after the storm. We need to stop the #NasaanAngPangulo (Translated: Where is the president) tag because the local governments should be the first to work. 

It was hard navigating the house without the solar lights during Ruping. True, Odette did leave some rooms not usable--at least there were lights. At least, there was soon some order done allowing people to slowly buy stuff to repair their houses. We even had good neighbors who allowed us to charge our devices. It was a pain (for the first few days) to charge the vehicle. The car battery would be destroyed sooner or later. Still, I felt that Odette got manageable because of solar lights, having a generator and that there's currently better technology. Soon, repairs in the household were becoming more manageable. Electricity came back around January. Before that, there was limited electricity via a generator. 

After Ruping, I sort of developed a trauma every time there was a brownout. Well, brownouts were very frequent during the 1990s. It could come in the way of projects and exams. Sure, there was no Christmas celebration in 2021. However, it was still l manageable to have a not-merry Christmas with the conveniences of a generator and solar lights. Ruping was probably still a traumatic experience. Fortunately, Cebu has pulled through Typhoon Ruping. It's also pulled through Typhoon Odette. Though, we need to have more public utilities (whether Filipino or foreign) to make better disaster preparedness regardless. 
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