The Manila Times, April 24, 2005

Typhoon Survivors' Attitude Inspires Red Cross Workers

DINGALAN, Aurora - On an inspection trip here in mid-April, the chair of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), Sen. Richard J. Gordon, asked the landslide-affected residents of Aurora Province about life these days. "Not so bad, sir," came the reply. "Land has gone up and electricity has gone down."

That is, the landslides have added about a meter of earth all over town, which also means the electricity poles are one meter shorter.

Gordon grinned at the show of true grit by folk who five months earlier had hung on to their lives as boulders the size of cars, rocks, trees, logs and mud "10 feet thick," as one old-timer described it, cascaded down the mountainside, churned by wind and rain from typhoon Winnie.

Even though in Aurora, as well as in 12 other provinces, the physical scars from last year's four successive typhoons remain, the human drive to prevail is strong.