Last September 3, it was in the news that the Tacloban City airport was going to be closed due to the much needed repairs that had been long delayed since typhoon Yolanda devastated the city 10 months ago. The runway just had to be repaired. I was then not expecting that my flight to Tacloban the following day would push through but to my surprise, there was no flight cancellation at all. From the airport we took the bus to bring us to the plane and to our surprise, it was not the usual big plane—the Airbus A300. Some passengers murmured why we were using a smaller plane. I quickly understood why. It was safer that way considering that the runway in Tacloban is in bad shape.

It was my first time to ride again a propeller driven plane since the 80s—maybe about 30 years or so ago. I was actually amazed that it had such powerful engines and you can feel its vibration. The flight attendant told me it was a Q400 Bombardier. Wow, I thought to myself, a bomber plane? Nope, it was not but it sure was fast and it moved a lot like a fighter plane compared to the bigger Airbus A300 haha!

At first I enjoyed that I had a good view of the propeller. I was seated right next to it! So I took videos of it but then later I soon found out how noisy it can be! When we were about to land, I felt like my blood pressure rose higher and I didn’t feel good with all the noise and all the shaking all around me. Thankfully, I survived haha!

On my return flight, I made sure I was as far away from the propeller and I had an earphone plugged to my ear. Quite an experience after so many decades had passed.

On my flight back to Manila from Tacloban a week or so ago, many of us who were waiting at the airport began to be impatient when our flight became increasingly more and more delayed from its scheduled departure time. The plane was already there but it seemed like there was no sign yet that we were going to board the plane anytime soon. There was so much time delay I thought to myself and I couldn’t see any activity for a long while at the tarmac.

But then later on, my impatience was changed into curiosity when I saw a policewoman got inside the plane. I quickly grabbed my camera and changed my 14-45mm kit lens to my 45-200mm zoom lens. Then some of the ground crew gathered around the plane’s stairs. I thought that there might be some crime that had happened or maybe a bomb may have been planted and they are checking the plane.

I was wrong.  As it turned out, the reason for the delay was that there was an American who got sick and vomited while in flight from Manila to Tacloban. They were waiting for an ambulance to arrive before they moved the patient out of the plane. My impatience turned to compassion—feeling sorry for the American who got sick while in flight. Hope that by this time he is doing fine and in good health wherever he is now.

I had the opportunity to visit Tacloban City ten months after it was devastated by typhoon Yolanda. During that super typhoon (international name: typhoon Haiyan), it is estimated that more than 6,000 died due to the storm surge. Previous to this, we Filipinos did not understand what a “storm surge” meant. I guess it did not register quite well in the minds of people and many did not take seriously the warning knowing that this area was prone to typhoons and typhoons happen all the time. It was too late when we finally understood what “storm surge” really meant. Now we know.

Ten months after Yolanda, I can see that life in this area seems to be getting back to normal. People are doing what they can to survive and live a normal life. On this trip, I was asked to take photos and videos of what’s going on in the area. I was glad I had the opportunity to visit the place.

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