Tacloban evacuees call for help to return home

DUMAGUETE CITY , Philippines— Emily Dagpin, 52, thought she would never see her six children again after a storm surge around 18 meters high destroyed their house in Tacloban City when typhoon Yolanda struck on Nov. 8.

“I stayed afloat for hours using a part of our roof until we reached an elevated area that turned out to be a boarding house,” she told The Freeman, adding that she saw herself hundreds of dead bodies getting past her while these were swept away by the current.

Their three-story house at Esperas Avenue in Tacloban was totally destroyed, while a cousin of hers was killed when their house caved in on them, she said.

“If that happened at night, we all could have been killed,” she said, teary-eyed. “Many people died even in the evacuation center where some of my children were staying. Some of the bodies were bruised; some were punctured severely,” Emily narrated.

Emily, her husband, and her six children eventually rode a C-130 plane from the Korean government to Cebu City, and from there boarded a bus until they got to this city, where their relatives living here paid for their fare.

“We only received relief goods a week after the storm happened. While waiting, we only fed on washed-up canned goods and rice just to survive,” she recalled.

Her family now lives in a relative’s house in Barangay Candau-ay of this city, appealing for help that they may come home when classes resumed in Tacloban. “Many of my children are graduating by March, that’s why we want to go home, even if commodities are very expensive there,” she told The Freeman.

As of press time, nobody from this city has expressed to help them come home. Her 52-year-old husband, Pablo, went to his hometown in Zamboanga del Norte to ask for help from friends and relatives there. “We really want to go home and start living normally again there,” Emily said. “Maikog na mi sa among paryente diri nga among gipuy-an.”

Those who wish to help Emily and her family may contact their relative, Dante Capistrano, at (035) 421-4831, or Emily’s daughter, Marianne Dagpin, at  0909-860-7162. (FREEMAN)