Giving birth in Bohol 7.2-magnitude earthquake: ‘Push and pray’ | Sun.Star
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Natuman ang Gipangandoy sa tunga sa linog.
Lisod kaayo ning naay linog sa adlaw sa atong kasal apan sama sa giingon, mapugngan ang baha dili dyog ang gugma. Mao ni nahitabo sa Advincula sa adlaw sa ilang kasal.
By Linette Ramos Cantalej from sunstar.com.ph
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Julie Ann woke up at 2:30 a.m. last Tuesday to have enough time for make-up and pictorials before the wedding ceremony at 9 a.m.
CEBU CITY -- Dream weddings don’t happen easily.
It took Julie Ann Advincula over a year to prepare for her dream wedding in Cebu City, making countless calls and e-mails from her home base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to make sure everything goes as planned.
Even their honeymoon in Bohol, scheduled for a few days after their wedding, was already set.
Panic
But at 8:12 a.m., when she was about to step out of the Mandarin Hotel’s elevator with her flower girls and bearers, the ground shook violently, sending everyone in a panic.
They ran to the nearest stairs to go out of the hotel, only to find that heavy chandeliers lined the ceiling above the stairway.
“Maoy pag-open sa door when it started shaking. I felt we were trapped because if we go down the stairs, the chandeliers could fall on us, but we also could not take the lift. I felt so helpless because I could not run in my gown and heels. I was with these children and I felt I was responsible for them. All I could do was kneel and pray to God to keep us safe,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
Julie Ann, an accountant based in Ras Al-Khaimah in the UAE, said she was worried about her family, especially her mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer recently.
Weeks before flying home to Cebu for their wedding, she also lost her wedding ring.
Her husband Ozaman also almost lost his boarding pass for his flight to Cebu.
“Feeling nako end na to siya, that was it. But a part of me also believed that it could not be the end. After all the unfortunate incidents before our wedding, this is just another trial that we will overcome,” an emotional Julie Ann said.
Just the beginning
On the 16th floor of the hotel, Ozaman was with his groomsmen waiting for their turn to leave for the church. It was a special day for him since he was also celebrating his 33rd birthday.
Like everyone else in the building, they feared for their life when the room started to move. As soon as it stopped, they ran down the stairs until they reached the ground floor, leaving their belongings behind and the room door open.
“All I was thinking was dapat madayon ang kasal… Communication lines were dead and we could not contact each other. We ended up on the sidewalk outside the hotel. When we got to the church, it was worse. The stained glass windows were shattered and the debris was all over the floor. We had to transfer to a nearby chapel,” wedding planner Otep Arnejo said.
Aftershocks were felt throughout the ceremony, leaving the couple and their guests anxious. Even the priest had to pause several times to appease everyone.
As if the couple’s worries were not enough, their reception venue closed shortly after the earthquake and everyone was refused entry when they arrived.
Julie Ann said this was the most difficult part for her, since she was asked to sign a waiver stating that the club management will not be held liable if anything happens during the reception.
She said she did not want to sign the document, “but in the end, I entrusted everything to God, that everything will be okay.”
“Despite what happened, I did not consider postponing the wedding. I felt there was more reason to proceed because I knew God will not forsake us… Everything that happened, we considered it as God’s message that not even an earthquake can break our bond as husband and wife,” Julie Ann added.
However, they had to cancel their honeymoon in Bohol, where the epicenter of the earthquake was.
Honeymoon at the oval
Traumatized by the events, the Advincula couple and their family refused to go back to their hotel rooms, which were already booked for several nights.
They had all their belongings delivered to them at the lobby and everyone left to transfer to pension houses in downtown Cebu City.
Restless throughout the night, they decided to camp out at the Cebu City Sports Center oval, bringing with them one whole lechon and other leftover food from the reception to celebrate Ozaman’s birthday.
At the start of their wedding planning, Julie Ann asked her wedding coordinator only one thing—to make their wedding simple and memorable.
“No one can forget our wedding day. It’s proof that if we just have faith in God, He will not leave us, and that nothing is impossible if we just believe in Him,” she said.
Julie Ann said she got what she wished for—a memorable wedding day. She just didn’t expect that a 7.2 magnitude earthquake would make it so.
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Pangadye tuman sa ginhawa, ray panagang sa kakulba og kahadlok
Thursday, October 17, 2013 from sunstar.com ph
“I THOUGHT it was the end of the world,” said 56-year-old candle vendor Leonisa Lacio in Cebuano.
Lacio saw the two buildings in front of the Basilica del Sto. Niño sway side to side when the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Cebu and Bohol last Tuesday morning.
“Sus, hapit ko nalipong oi. Kung naa pay trabaho, daghan gyud nangamatay (I almost got dizzy. Good thing it was a holiday or many people would’ve died),” said Lacio, who has been selling candles in the church vicinity for the last 30 years.
More witnesses
Fearing the world was coming to an end, Lacio said she asked the Sto. Niño for forgiveness.
Corazon Cuyos, a flower vendor, saw the basilica’s belfry collapse within seconds.
The 38-year-old said she hid in a nearby building while other flower vendors ran to an open space.
Gina Rosada, also a candle vendor, said smoke was coming out of the belfry right before it collapsed.
She also said debris from the church wall began to chip away as soon as the tremors started.
“I just prayed to the Sto. Niño to stop the earthquake, but the rumbling noise from inside the ground wouldn’t stop,” she said in Cebuano.
She said she, too, thought it was the end of the world.
She lost her appetite and that she immediately went home to check on her family.
Although the tremor barely lasted 30 seconds, the public had to contend with aftershocks throughout the rest of the day, forcing some families to take to the streets.
Out in the open
Hazel Joy Celestial and her family set up a makeshift bed on the road in Barangay Apas, Cebu City last Tuesday night.
“Nagsinardinas ming tanan (There were a lot of us in the bed),” said the 25-year-old teacher.
Even if she barely slept a wink, she was glad her family escaped unscathed.
She said she fought her fear with prayers and by thinking she was not alone because “God was protecting her.”
Shalaine Lucero, protective services unit head of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7, said every person has his own way of dealing with fear.
Those who can’t cope should seek the help of a psychiatrist or a counselor.
As to the families of casualties in Cebu and Bohol, Lucero said they should undergo stress debriefing.
She said some DSWD 7 personnel are in Bohol to deliver food and other goods to victims.
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