{"id":5003,"date":"2020-02-06T08:06:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T14:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/?p=5003"},"modified":"2020-02-06T08:06:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T14:06:47","slug":"whats-next-life-after-the-taal-volcano-eruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/whats-next-life-after-the-taal-volcano-eruption\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Next? Life After the Taal Volcano Eruption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January 12, 2020.It was a typical Sunday afternoon where families are gathered together, enjoying the weekend in high spirits as the new year has just rolled in. Not one person was aware of the tragedy that was about to unfold a few minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, we all know what happened next. The ground\nstarted to rumble and shake. Fissures began to spew smoke and steam all over\nthe island volcano. Then out came a huge pillar of smoke, ashes, volcanic\ndebris, and sulfur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taal Volcano has erupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Small But Terrible<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Taal Volcano is known to be the world’s smallest active\nvolcano. It is the second most active volcano in the Philippines next to Mount\nMayon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say that it is “small but terrible” is a\ncomplete understatement and undermines the tremendous destructive power of the\nvolcano island.It is completely unpredictable. It can look peaceful and serene\n– beautiful, even – in its dormant state. However, once it unleashes its wrath,\nit leaves behind a trail of destruction and catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, according to a paper titled “The 2010 seismovolcanic crisis at Taal Volcano\n(Philippines)<\/a>,” eruptions of the small volcano are powerful and\nviolent. They can happen at any time. Until now, as we all witnessed a few\nweeks ago, there is no surefire way to forecast its eruptions well in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The volcano exploded without warning, taking the residents\nand tourists in the area completely by surprise. People were advised to\nevacuate and clear the cities and towns surrounding the area. Hordes of people\nfled the town and went to seek refuge in neighboring provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What started as a dreamy Sunday turned out to be a\nnightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rescue and Relief Ops<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As soon as the news of Taal’s eruption broke, rescue and\nrelief operations were immediately mobilized. Filipinos and the world over\nstarted to take to social media and ask not just for prayers but for any kind\nof help that could be lent to the victims of the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People started giving. Companies and institutions did their\ncivic duties and organized donations drives. Military and police staff and\npersonnel were deployed.Construction and trucking companies sent out trucks to\nhelp transport people. Some sent an articulated hauler<\/a> to help with the disposal\nof ashes, dirt, and debris. Everybody wanted to pitch in and help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the next few days, help and assistance from all over\npoured it much to the relief of the victims and the volunteers on-site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking Up the Pieces<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now that Phivolcs has lowered the alert level<\/a> to Level\n3, people are starting to go back to their homes to pick up the pieces and\nstart all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some of them are excited to go home, others are left with severe trauma<\/a> and just want to\nrelocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the help and aid they received are well appreciated.\nFrom food to clothes to financial aid to clean-up drives, the victims have\nnothing but gratefulness and respect to each Filipino that gave and volunteered.\nHowever, there is still a lingering sorrow left in their hearts in light of the\npain of the losses they experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 22, 2020, the Philippine House of Representatives\nheld an out-of-town plenary session in Batangas where the volcano is located.\nAccording to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, they did this to show the\nvictims that the congress prioritizes responding to the victims’ needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it may seem like a symbolic act, until something\ntangible and practical comes out of it, it will remain just that – symbolic.\nThe question on a lot of the victims’ minds right now is, “Where do we go\nfrom here?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How will the government help them rebuild their lives and\nregain that which was lost? How do you follow through to make sure the words\nspoken are not just empty promises?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Filipino people are resilient. They know how to bounce back from every tragedy they have faced. The Filipino spirit is very much alive, especially during circumstances like calamities. If there’s one good thing about a tragedy, it brings Filipinos together to work with one another in helping people rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might take some time and the process will not be an easy one but they will recover. They always recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 12, 2020.It was a typical Sunday afternoon where families are gathered together, enjoying the weekend in high spirits as the new year has just rolled in. Not one person was aware of the tragedy that was about to unfold a few minutes later. Needless to say, we all know what happened next. The ground […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What\u2019s Next? Life After the Taal Volcano Eruption #dadbloggers ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,276],"tags":[12,147,899,898],"class_list":["post-5003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-family","tag-blog-2","tag-family","tag-recovery","tag-volcano"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JMKA-1iH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5006,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5003\/revisions\/5006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}