Kaye Abad and Paul Jake Castillo just shared their harrowing experience at home when Typhoon Odette hit Cebu.
In a Facebook video uploaded by ABS-CBN News, the celeb couple talked about how they didn't expect the typhoon to be that strong. When their power started fluctuating on the evening of December 16, Kaye thought it would just be the typical temporary outage during storms.
"That's when the wind started, mga around 7, 7:30. So we thought na, 'A, normal typhoon, walang kuryente.' Around mga 8 o'clock, they started—not naman shouting—but I heard someone, 'O, kunin mo 'to!' 'Isara na 'to!'"
Paul Jake recalls how the wind suddenly got stronger and they felt their house's roof and overall structure shake. That's when they started to save as much of their belongings as possible and hid their son Joaquin in a room.
"And then the wind started hitting the glass and the windows. We tried to save it and then all of a sudden, kasi siyempre, sa bahay, may mga glass na sliding door. Nag-break na yung mga lock niya, it started to open na, 'di na namin ma-control."
When Kaye opened the door, their house was in disarray. Paul Jake and one of their helpers were trying to block the glass doors with benches to keep them from shattering.
"I opened the door, ang gulo-gulo na ng bahay," she remembers.
Paul Jake said they then decided to hole up in one room to protect themselves.
"Wala na, na-accept na namin na wala na yung bahay, mga stuff namin sa bahay, basta ma-save lang namin yung sarili namin. I mean, yung experience namin does not compare to the experience of other people, but we were scared for our lives also."
"Pa'no yung baby?" Kaye recalls. "Pa'no ko itatakbo 'to pababa? Grabe. Really scary experience."
As of December 26, the death toll due to Typhoon Odette has risen to 378. Areas affected by the typhoon include northeastern Mindanao, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and Palawan. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) estimates P3.9 billion in agricultural losses and P16.5 billion in infrastructural damage.
