Pinoys getting by after violent storm ravages Washington area

JEM R. PALO, FILIPINO REPORTER Special to the Filipino Reporter Atypical of a Friday night, at 10 p.m. the lights went out. It would apparently remain so for the next few days in D.C., Maryland and Virginia as a storm last June 29 caused power outages in about a million households. The storm that caught many by surprise, forced many to welcome this year’s 4th of July in intense heat. It was reported that the last storm with a similar impact had been in 2003 but people saw that one coming. It was a week’s worth of damage. Winds that blew up to 80 mph caused trees to collapse onto roads and power lines. Traffic lights stopped working forcing drivers to maneuver extra carefully and road accident reports came in trickles that night. “I was scared, I thought I was going to die,” said Edwin Puson, an elementary math teacher in Prince George’s County. Puson had been on a metro train en route to his area in Lanham, Maryland, when it stopped to announce that the train was out of service. People were asked to move out of the train, but due to the strong winds, were not allowed to leave the station. “Personally I panicked, because the police told us to stay inside. A friend of mine also told me that the wind was blowing really strongly outside,” he said. Puson and hundreds of other passengers were stuck in the station for almost three hours before they could get another train. The passengers finally had to be transported to their respective stations via shuttle when all the trains were completely out of order. People took to their basements to cool off. Most restaurants, save for those which ran on generators, were closed off Saturday, causing a splurge of panic buyers to hit the local grocery stores. But even that was of little help. With refrigerators down, people could only buy a few food selections like bread and soda — careful not to add to their already spoiling food at home. But food was the least of their problems. Without power, death tolls from the heat wave, fallen debris, damaged houses and electrocution accidents from power lines, reached at least 10 for all three areas. This year’s heat wave held the record for the longest stretch of days with over 90 degrees (from June 29) and the hottest June day blasting the thermometer read up to 104 degrees. Friday’s storm, a derecho — a series of strong storms that occur during the summer — forced the three states to declare a state of emergency to make them eligible for federal funding. Major electric companies in the area such as Pepco, Baltimore Generator and Electric and Dominion — which had about 300,000 affected households each — had to reinforce their supplies and repair teams from states as far as Texas. Reparations had been a slow, grueling process for many, as fallen trees caused some downed power lines. While majority of the households had their power finally restored last Friday, July 6, there is an estimated 8,000 still left without electricity. The Rodulfa family who has lived in Maryland for about four-and-a-half years now said it was the worst storm they experienced so far. “We lost power for about three days and a half. [We had to] stay overnight in two different houses bringing our own snacks and toiletries along with us,” said Esther Rodulfa, 19, the third of four siblings in the Rodulfa family. A junior at Prince George’s County Community College, she added that she also was not able to go to her volunteer work at Doctor’s Community hospital. Hospitals had briefly lost power Friday, but were immediately restored Saturday. Esther’s family was not alone in this feat as Filipinos all over the area sought refuge with friends whose electricity had already been restored, heating up food, cooking rice, and taking the opportunity for small grilling parties. Certainly, even in the aftermath of a storm and amidst unparalleled heat, Filipinos can keep it cool and take their bayanihan to the next level. - Filipino Reporter