Philippines: The Penero Family


  • Photographer
    Gloriann Liu
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    January, 2014
  • Technical Info
    Nikon D4

Leyte Island, Philippines was hit by Typhoon Yolanda / Haiyan on November 8, 2013. Some of the strongest winds ever recorded drove on shore a wall of water up to twenty-five feet high with winds of over one hundred and forty miles an hour. The storm killed over ten thousand Filipinos. I arrived in Tacloban three months after Typhoon Yolanda’s wrath. I had made arrangements to live with a family. The Penero Family live in Alang-Alang, a small village about ten miles from Tacloban on Leyte Island. In late January, 2014 there was still no electricity or running water in their home.

Story

Leyte Island, Philippines was hit by Typhoon Yolanda / Haiyan on November 8, 2013. Some of the strongest winds ever recorded drove on shore a wall of water up to twenty-five feet high with winds of over one hundred and forty miles an hour. The storm killed over ten thousand Filipinos.

I arrived in Tacloban three months after Typhoon Yolanda’s wrath. I had made arrangements to live with the family of a friend from California. The Penero Family live in Alang-Alang, a small village about ten miles from Tacloban on Leyte Island. In late January, 2014 there was still no electricity or running water in their home. The Peneros were extremely welcoming and gracious. They gave me an upstairs bedroom to myself. Their house was one of the few left standing on the island. The roof was ruined and there were no windows, but the extended family had pulled together and life in the home, while arduous, was simple and pleasant.

Milly, the oldest daughter of Nana and Tatay, is the general manager of the Penero family home. She cares for her aging parents who are now invalids. Tatay, her father, has Alzheimer's disease and her mother, Nana, broke her hip during the typhoon. Milly has one son and her husband is deceased. Albert and Cirilo, Milly’s brothers and their families have been living in the home since the typhoon destroyed their homes and their coconut farm.

The first week I traveled around the Island in a jeepney owned by the Penero family. Riding in a jeepney is is like riding in a cross between a WW-II jeep and a small school bus, but less comfortably. Randy and Jo Ann, members of the family, were my appointed guides for the two weeks I was there . They introduced me to the areas of the island that had been the hardest hit by Typhoon Yolanda. The whole family was on board the day we took Nana to the hospital for a check-up. Nana sat in her wheelchair which had been loaded into the back of the Jeepney. We had fried chicken and french fries in the jeepney for lunch and did a little shopping in Tacloban. Some of the stores had just reopened. On the way back we drove to San Jose to visit Uncle Armando. San Jose is located on the coast of Leyte Island where Typhoon Yolanda first made landfall. Armando lost his wife, home and all of his possessions in the typhoon. He recently built a small dwelling out of found materials for himself, his daughter and two granddaughters. He hopes to someday rebuild a house in the exact spot where he last saw his wife.

I asked Milly what that day had been like during the typhoon. She told me that she had Nana and the children all shelter under the stairway, and everyone else held on to each other for the five hours the storm ravaged the island.

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