Typhoon Rai killed more than 400, displaced nearly 3.2 million, and destroyed more than a million homes in 2021
T
rixy Elle still weeps when she remembers how she and her family fought for their lives as Typhoon Rai tore across the Philippines days before Christmas four years ago. In a matter of hours, intense rain and storm surges swallowed their home on Batasan Island in Tubigon, Bohol province.
Elle, her elderly parents, brother, husband and two young children linked hands as they swam against flood waters in the dead of the night, praying to survive.
It was only the beginning of the family’s hardship. “For days, we survived on whatever we could get our hands on, like dead chickens and dead pigs. We didn’t even save a single piece of clothing,” the 34-year-old said. “I would go out to the sea and cry there so my family wouldn’t see me in pain.”
