After the Storm

 I woke up at exactly 1:37 A.M. this morning. The power was still not out at that time, and I knew it would be later because the wind was getting stronger. It wasn't long before I saw our roof shaking. The wind was so strong that even our not-on ceiling fan was slowly rotating. We somehow expected this typhoon because days before today, news of a strong typhoon flooded my feed, yet I still didn't expect that I would still feel this nervous. I know our roof was securely fastened with several ropes, but I couldn't help feeling terrified by the howling wind and heavy rain that was hitting our roof.  We don't have a ceiling, so we really can hear everything that hits our roof. The wind was raging, and I'm starting to really panic for real that time, so to relieve myself, I tried drifting back to sleep again, which took a while. However, it just relieved me for a couple of hours because I woke up again past 3:00 A.M. It was still raining, and the harsh winds were still there. I was starting to worry that the ropes binding our house would not hold anymore, so I stayed awake both out of worry and fear. I already experienced strong typhoons hitting our home before, and the last time I slept on it didn't end up well. It was Typhoon Odette that time, and I thought that after sleeping all through it, that typhoon would pass, but I was wrong...  The moment I woke up, we were already evacuating to another house because it was already raining inside ours. A large tree branch made a huge hole in our roof, so we have no choice but to evacuate to the neighboring houses because ours was already not safe. That's why when I experienced those harsh winds today, I couldn't help reminisce those moments and stay awake and watchful. Our surroundings were silent for hours, save for the sound that was from the wind and the trees. I stayed half-asleep until a glimmer of daylight came. It was still raining that time, but I'm kinda happy that it wasn't as gloomy as it was earlier. And finally, after hours of worry...the rain stopped, and so did the wind. I guess it was past 9:00 when it did, yet still I can't help but be on watch. When it didn't came back for almost half an hour, I decided to finally sleep soundly.  It was almost 2:00 in the afternoon when I woke up. I immediately got the urge to go outside and check the surroundings...and what I saw kinda caught me off guard. A lot of our plants were destroyed, and even our *guyabano* or soursop tree wasn't spared. Our front yard was definitely in chaos—with most of our plants snapped—if not in half, then in many pieces. Once I was done looking at our front yard, I went to inspect our backyard, and there I saw our banana trees completely destroyed. Supposedly, we can already harvest them later this month, but now we can't since they already can't grow any further. It's really sad that a lot of our plants died, but still we're thankful that those are just the casualties. Our house and us were unscathed, and that's something we really are thankful for.  *PS. I just read another alarming news on my feed, and it's all about a potential super typhoon coming this weekend. It already made me anxious again, but I know panicking would do me nor us no good. So yeah...let's always be vigilant and ready because even though we're warned, things can really get out of hand. Keep safe everyone, and may God bless us all.*  _{[*Source*](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CucYQi9uX/)} > *Amping kanatong tanan! Stay calm and updated fellow Filipino—especially Cebuano hivers :)*