AS I WAS writing this yesterday, somebody from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) was reporting on radio about super typhoon “Maria” that might enter the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) on Monday. It was then battering the western Pacific Ocean northwest of Guam. It had already killed four people in Japan and had forced the evacuation of 210,000 low-land residents.
The Pagasa weatherman warned us against complacency. No matter how remote, there remains the possibility of “Maria” land-falling and turning into “Gardo” – its local name once it hits the PAR.
Heeding that warning, I motored to a grocery store to buy fish, vegetables and canned goods. There I met friends who had also been driven by natural instinct to rise above any emergency situation.
We were no panicky; we were just “arming” ourselves against a threatening natural l disaster. After all, the Philippines has already lost so many lives and properties to typhoons, floods and earthquakes that “survival” seems to befit only the “fittest.”
Any natural disaster is metaphorically called “act of God.” While we are not privy to the etymology of the metaphor, it paints the picture of man struggling to survive God’s punishment which could be in such forms as typhoon, flood, earthquake and tsunami.
People who are supposed to rest on their laurels, having retired and are tired of any more work, may suddenly lose everything they have to natural disasters. Imagine a farmer who loses what could have been a bountiful rice harvest to “act of God.” He suddenly falls back to poverty – if not under the ground for eternal rest.
Fear of death ranks as the number one reason why we dread natural disaster.
It has been almost five years since “Yolanda” battered us with strong winds that wrecked thousands of homes and drowned thousands of people and livestock to death. What have we done to deserve another wrath of God?
But why blame God when it’s we who “sin” against nature? An example of such “sin” is illegal logging that depletes forest cover, consequently causing killer floods during rainy days. Because of the fault of the few, the innocent also suffer nature’s punishment.
One vital lesson that Yolanda taught us is that, in such a disaster, the rich and the poor may lose everything and suddenly find themselves on equal footing. There are even instances when the poor are more comfortable because they are already used to poverty and so have better coping mechanism.
Another lesson is that we should always prepare for tomorrow’s disaster, even if today’s weather is fine. It is a “given” that disaster victims with reserve wealth – money in the bank, for instance – recover faster.
Those with no immediate prospect of bouncing back because they have lost everything, including their only source of income, face a blank wall. They could be so desperate as to commit suicide.
On the positive side, it alerts us into rediscovering that we are not the owners but just temporary custodians of our lives, the earth and all materials possessions thereat. We bring no property to the afterlife.
“For all the earth is mine,” God said in Exodus 19:5.
There are nevertheless ways to soften the impact of natural disasters. We have heard it said that God would not allow us to deal with problems we can’t cope with.
As the late British statesman Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, “These are not hard times; these are more challenging times.”
Everybody has heard this: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
