The hits just keep on coming!

The hits just keep on coming! The world may not have ended this December 2012, but the calamities and bad news just seem to keep on piling up! And the year isn’t even over! This month alone, we had the devastating typhoon Pablo that hit Davao Oriental, causing mudslides that wiped out entire barangays, flash floods that inundated towns, and wiped out an entire banana plantation, lying waste to what could have been a bountiful harvest. So extensive was the damage wrought by the typhoon that some have packed up and left, knowing that the industry is lost. More than a thousand confirmed dead, with many more missing. Life has not gone back to normal for many, as they have lost whatever they had to the wind and waters of nature. As they try to pick up the pieces, and as help trickles in from all over the country, Christmas may have been the farthest thing on their minds.

Then we have the Christmas Day fires in San Juan and Quezon City, where deaths have been reported. At a time when people should be celebrating, tragedy strikes! Nothing consumes more than a fire. And that is just what it did on these two occasions. One of the fires is being blamed on sky lanterns that were lit and set on flight the night of the fires. While an investigation is in process, these lanterns, beautiful as they are, have been banned by the Bureau of Fire Protection. Common sense should have dictated that these lanterns are most definitely a potential fire risk, and should only be lit by the seaside, as is commonly done. But common sense is sometimes scarce in certain parts of the country!

Then, when we thought we were on our way to a more event-free New Year’s celebration, here comes another typhoon! Though it may not be a fraction of the strength of Pablo, typhoon Quinta did bring enough rains with her to cause yet another round of flooding, this time in the Visayas area! Cebu has been mostly spared, thank goodness, causing only power outages in some towns! Palawan, where many have gone to spend the last week of the year, was directly in the path of Quinta, thereby raining on their vacation!

There are only four days until the end of a very eventful year. I can only hope and pray that we can be given these last days of the year in peace, and celebrate with whatever we have as provided by the Lord. The Mayans may have been right after all for some, so to speak, if not the whole world. There, those whose world have been washed away or covered in mud. Some who have lost to fire and wind. And even some to the inevitable fate of sickness and disease. But it is my hope that these four days be given to us in peace, as we look forward to another year, hopefully a good one.