Typhoon Ompong (Mangkhut) made landfall on Baggao, Cagayan on Sept. 18, 2018. According to NDRRMC’s Situational Report issued on Oct. 6, 2018, a total of 21,607 families or 88,058 individuals in 48 barangays in Baggao town were affected. A total of 14,108 houses were damaged in the municipality, of which 1,963 were totaled.

Victoria Sagiped, 62 years old, is one of the unfortunate ones whose houses were totally damaged by the catastrophic typhoon. She is a widow of four years. She lives alone in her house. She does not have her own farm but plants corn in a ¼ hectare land owned by another family.
Not properly informed and warned on how the strong the storm would be, Nanay Victoria and her family did not leave the house. She said she did not expect that her house would collapse. She recalled how she went down on all fours when her house caved in. She was with her children and their families (3 families, 14 persons) when this happened. It was dark and they had to grope their way to their neighbor’s house. She said she thought she would die of fear especially because she has a hypertension. There were strewn galvanized roofs all around and her son-in-law was injured while evacuating.

Victoria Sagiped, a 62-year old widow, receives 4 sacks of fertilizers from Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe

For three days, they sought shelter under a makeshift tent on their neighbor’s lot.

Nanay Victoria received PhP33,000 under DSWD’s emergency shelter assistance (ESA) program which aims to immediately assist in the reconstruction of shelters for typhoon Ompong survivors. She said that she was so “traumatized” by her experience that she had a sturdier house built with this money. She also said that building a stronger house after the old one was totally damaged gave her the assurance that her house will not easily crumble under bad weather conditions.
Nanay Victoria said one of the most important lessons she learnt from her experience was the importance of preemptive evacuation. She said that in the future, when she learns of a strong incoming typhoon, she will readily and immediately evacuate.

As a beneficiary of the Early Recovery project, Nanay Victoria said that if not for the livelihood support (fertilizers) from Diakonie KatastrophenhIlfe (DKH) thru CDRC and CVDRC, she would have incurred debts at 20% interest rate. A sack of fertilizer would cost her PhP1,150 plus 20kg. of corn grains when paid (PhP12 x 20kg or PhP240). She may have not saved anything but she greatly appreciates the fact that she does not have to borrow fertilizer from creditors like Traders.
Two sacks of rice were already used as side dressing (second application of fertilizer) by the time we interviewed Nanay Victoria on January 2020. She lent the remaining two sacks to her son on the agreement that he will pay for/return the fertilizers by June 2020, in time for planting. Corn farmers like her already harvested on April 2020. The yield was much better compared to the harvest on December 2019, when Cagayan was placed under a state of calamity due to severe flooding.

With her perseverance and support from organizations like DKH, CDRC and CVDRC, she hopes that the fall she experienced during Ty Ompong will remain a distant memory. Knowing that she is not alone, she is ready to get back on her feet again.