The time to go back to for our
appointment with the US Embassy is finally here. It's Black Saturday
and things are getting back to normal. Buses started running, stores
opening for business, etc.., after a two day lull. We were able to
catch a 5:00 AM ride to Tacloban for our bus ride back to Manila. A
week before (see my preceeding blog), I could not get a plane ticket
to Manila but I was able to secure our seats on a DLTB Co. bus. And
once again we have to go on another 24 hour bus ride to Manila for
our April 17th appointment.
That Good Friday, Michael made a
comment about “storm brewing up.” The wind picked up pace and
dark clouds hovered above us mostly all that day. When I turned in
for the night, I received a text message from the NDRRMC (National
Disaster Risk Reduction....) alerting us that the low pressure
spotted in the PAR (Philippine area of responsibility) by the PAGASA
(Philippine Atmospheric.....) has now become a typhoon to which they
named “Cresing”. The phone kept dinging through early morning
updating us of the storm. It's not affecting Leyte but it will
affect Samar and the CALABARZON area – meaning the tip of Northern
Samar island and the southernmost part of Luzon. Around 9:30
Saturday morning, while we were waiting for our Manila-bound bus to
pull out of the terminal, I got another text message from NDRRMC.
“Cresing” is expected to make a landfall on the island of Samar
at noon that day. We made the 6-hour ride from Tacloban to Allen,
Samar. The skies were cloudy but the sun shone brightly all the way.
I managed to take pictures of San Juanico Bridge (the long bridge
that connects Leyte and Samar) although I then realized that I am
sitting on the wrong side of the bus to be able to get a nice picture
of the bridge but this will do for now:
By the time we reached the town of
Calbayog in Samar (about an hour and a half to Allen), I received
another text from the NDRRMC. Signal No.1 had been raised in
Northern Samar and Sorsogon but when we reached Allen, Samar it was
sunny and warm, hardly any wind and no sign of typhoon. This is
where we take the ferry, bus and all, to get to the southernmost tip
of Luzon, about two hours at sea. As we pulled in the terminal, we
noticed buses all neatly lined up inside the covered area and people
milling about. Then the bus driver announced that there are no
ferries available because the Coast Guard is not allowing any vessels
to cross from Matnog, Sorsogon to Allen, Samar. It looks like we
will be stuck here for however long. I overheard through passengers'
conversations over the phone that Tacloban had been dumped with
torrential rain and somewhere in Sorsogon heavy rain and wind. We
all spent the night at the terminal. It did rain that night but not a
lot.
At 2AM we boarded and were taken to the
port for the ferry ride to Matnog. Inside the ticketing office was
total chaos and it was a disaster! There was nobody in charge, no
organization, no direction, no nothing. People were shoving and
pushing to get tickets to the ferry. It took another 2 hours before
we got out of that commotion. There were only two ferries that would
take all the passengers and the buses. Some of us were told to get
on the 2GO ferry as that's where our bus will be loaded while the
others were told to get on the Montenegro ferry. We found out our
bus was on the Montenegro ferry while we were on the 2GO. Well, our
bus driver had to wait for all of us who boarded on the 2GO vessel which added to the delay.
Because of the “no go” order from
the Philippine Coast Guard the day before, we noticed a long line of
buses and cargo trucks parked on the highway waiting to get in the
Matnog Port as we came out to continue our trip northbound. There
might have been more or less 20 buses that crossed San Bernardino
Strait and so it looked like we were in a caravan of buses going to
Manila.
Traffic was painfully slow from Legazpi City, Albay all the
way to Manila. Easter Sunday afternoon is a bad time to be on the
road as everybody wants to go back to Manila from the long Lenten
weekend. We made it to our hotel room at 3am by taxi.
The 20-hour trip turned into a long
40-hour trip and after a hot shower we all flopped on our beds. But not for long...we need to be at the US Embassy for our 9AM appointment.
That's it for now. I pray you all had a blessed Easter. Our Lord has risen indeed!
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