I remember how things unfurled on that night Odette arrived on Dec. 16, 2021, because I was still an on-field reporter then and I accompanied Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama in going around the various coastal barangays pleading with residents to evacuate.
The rain started to fall while the wind started to howl as early as 3 p.m. Yet people were adamant not to leave their homes behind despite the danger they faced.
At 5 p.m. I had to be rescued by my family at the Cebu City Hall so I could go home because no public transport could be caught in the impending storm.
The storm raged on the evening of Dec. 16, four to five hours of whistling angry wind and heavy rains. By the end of it, Cebu would be devasted, with over a million families and households affected.
The morning after Odette was when life changed forever. Cebu City looked apocalyptic. The utility lines were cut off. Water, electricity and communication were wrecked.
Transportation was nearly impossible. Lines at the bank took hours. The only things that surprisingly remained abundant were food, cash and hope.
It was the most difficult disaster I had personally ever encountered, harder than the pandemic, and everything that happened thereafter would forever change the course of my life.
Yet I also remember the heroism and a rise in neighborhood cooperation. The linemen and pipemen got to work tirelessly to return the utilities.
Neighbors shared water pumps, put up local stalls for food, and shared electricity through a charging station. The devastation brought the communities closer together because it was the only way to survive.
The local government got to work, without waiting for national aid, showing the massive resilience and independence of Cebuanos. While pleading for national aid, Cebu helped itself, a testament to its tenacity as a province.
In just three months, Cebu would fully recover from Odette with just a few remnants and reminders of the disaster that took lives, homes and properties days before Christmas.
As Christmas approaches this year, I am comforted by the fact that my family will be celebrating the holidays with power, water and communication. I have never appreciated these utilities as much as after Odette.
Yet there are still things that will never be the same after Odette. Relationships have been irrevocably broken and could no longer be repaired.
Some places changed and would never look the same again. Lives have been lost and we could only grieve for them.
In the end, we are all living in a post-Odette Cebu, and everyone who has experienced the disaster will forever share the pain and the hope that came with the memory.