In the morning of Christmas eve I woke up feeling cold and having chills. My body was telling me to rest. It has been weeks of continuous activities especially with the recently concluded MasKaraOK Challenge.

Aside from hosting events, I also manage an apartelle during the day and I tend a bar from five in the afternoon till midnight. Before, in between and after bedtime, I create videos. I am on a roll not to mention the parties and meetings that I needed to attend.

On December 24 at ten in the morning, after shaking for a good ten minutes, I was already running a high fever. I asked one of my staff to buy me Bioflu, bottled water and an apple. I do not know why apple. I guess it was force of habit. My mom would always feed me fruits when I was sick. I also called in sick. My mind could no longer take control and my body was saying it needed to rest and recover.

I slept the whole day and woke up in the evening realizing that it was Christmas eve and I should at least celebrate it with my staff. So, I asked them to buy anything they wanted to eat and they came home with a bucket of Chicken Joy, french fries, rice and soda. After dinner, I took another tablet of Bioflu and dozed off.

I slept through Christmas eve only to be awakened by the strong gusty winds of Typhoon Ursula in the morning.

I wanted to go out to witness Ursula’s might. I wanted to create a vlog similar to my vlog about Tisoy PH. I wanted to do an a la Atom Araullo during Yolanda… but I was too sick to even bother. Instead, I asked my staff to buy us our breakfast and two capsules of Bioflu. After breakfast, I dozed off.

I woke up in the afternoon to the sound of roofs clapping and rainwater splattering against my window pane. I went out to check and saw that my staff was still there. Power went off across the island. Globe’s signal and data connection shut down, too. I told myself “It is something you have no control over”. So, I decided to go back to bed.

Early evening, I woke up again to have dinner so I can take another capsule of Bioflu. Instead of asking my staff to buy us food, I decided to go out and explore. Lo and behold! D’Mall Palengke’s entrance was flooded. The street was full of people walking like zombies. We walked to McDonald’s and it was full of people in long queues. We walked further up to Andoks and it was also full. Even Ministop was full. We walked to Munchies and it was closed. I then decided to go back to McDonald’s and asked my staff to queue up after placing our orders.

I still had no idea about the extent of Ursula’s impact on Boracay Island until we got back home with one of my staff telling me that their boarding house’s roof, walls and ceiling were blown away. He could not message me because there was no telecommunication signal or whatsoever. I told my staff to stay with me first until things normalize.

My cellphone’s battery was dying already and I still had to message everyone in my family to inform them about what is going on. At 9 in the evening, I decided to go to a nearby bar, Frendz Bar, to juice up. My friends in Frendz told me that they, too, were affected by Ursula. Some of them lost their roofs while some got flooded. They said that Ursula was the strongest typhoon to ever hit Boracay in recent years. It was devastating to hear about it all especially so that I slept through it while my friends were trying to salvage their homes. I went home with 58% battery and zero spirit at 1 in the morning.

The next day, my fever was back. Hence, I took another capsule of Bioflu and slept most of the day. At 3 PM, I decided to get up and get dressed for work. By 4PM, I was on my way on the back of a motorcycle. We eased our way through uprooted electrical posts and trees in Angol, Station 3. By 5PM, I was already serving drinks at Coco Loco Boracay Bar.

By 930PM, I could feel my fever coming back and by 10PM, I was already walking home. I passed by the beach front and saw piles and piles of leaves and broken branches from Station 3 up to Station 2, in front of Epic Bar.

I hope tomorrow will be better.

The post SLEEPLESS IN BORACAY ON CHRISTMAS EVE (Typhoon Ursula Update- Dec. 24, 2019) appeared first on JOEL JAWS ANDRADA.

My room is pitch-dark. The only source of light is my mobile phone’s screen whose power I am trying to conserve. It has been more than 36 hours since power throughout the island has been shut down because of Typhoon Ursula. Bearing a storm signal number three, Ursula wreaked havoc on the beautiful island of Boracay leaving roofless houses and uprooted trees and electric poles in its track on Christmas Day. According to a friend who has been living on the island for five years, Ursula is the strongest yet to hit the island. Yes…. stronger than Yolanda.

The E-trikes plying the Boracay Main Road have lessened. Tricycles running on fuel are scarce and will soon cease to run once the island’s limited fuel supply becomes depleted. Some hotels have generator sets but their generator sets cannot run 24/7 to avoid overheating and would also have to be refilled. The queue in gasoline stations are long, too. Hence, hotel owners have to ration powersupply.

All communication lines have been cut off. No Smart. No Globe. No SMS. No data. No internet. No Facebook.

All ATMs are offline. My cash on hand will soon need replenishment. And, I have no idea how to produce the dough. There is also no way of receiving money via Palawan. Money transfers are offline, too.

While bar tending, a guest told me that she and her daughter have decided to cut short their vacation and leave the island first thing tomorrow because they have no means of paying for their accommodation. No credit card transactions. No Visa. No Mastercard. Further, she shared to me that she was trying to console another guest earlier in the morning who was so worried because he does not have enough cash to pay for his food in the coming days.

Some of my friends lost their houses to the raging winds of Ursula. To them, this Christmas is their saddest yet.

My room is still pitch dark. This time I am hearing one of my staff snore almost rhythmically to the beat of my neighbor’s generator set. I let my two staff stay with me since their boarding house was literally blown away.

According to rumors, power maybe restored in a week’s time. Communication lines? No one knows. ATMs going online? Nobody knows. We are, unfortunately, cut off from the rest of the world.

I reapplied a generous amount of off lotion. Only in my swimming trunks, I hope I get to sleep soundly tonight. I know that tomorrow will be better.

Merry Christmas, Boracay!

The post THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS IN BORACAY (Typhoon Ursula Update- Dec. 26, 2019) appeared first on JOEL JAWS ANDRADA.