Life Update: 2 Weeks after the 6.9 Earthquake

Hello everyone, this is me again @lorene08 sharing to you a simple and a life update blog.

After that 6.9 magnitude Earthquake that hit Northern Cebu, many lives and routines of all Cebuanos changed. Still we are experiencing aftershocks and of course-the trauma is still there.

Almost two weeks after the earthquake happened, we slept outside every night. I’m glad we have a small cottage outside that was just recently renovated, and that’s where we’ve been sleeping. Even though it has a roof, it’s still not enough to fully protect us whenever it rains. Since the earthquake, Cebu has been experiencing heavy rain almost every day, causing floods in many areas. It’s really cold, especially at night when it rains while we’re trying to sleep. Good thing we received something called a “trapal” (or tent in English), and after almost two weeks of sleeping outside, we finally got a proper camping tent from our cousin who’s in the military.

Even though we sleep outside, we still feel unsafe—especially after we experienced another strong aftershock this October. Honestly, it didn’t even feel like an aftershock because it was so strong that it woke everyone up at exactly 1 a.m.

Our family decided to give a small help to one of my father’s employees who lives far away, in the mountains actually. They told my father they barely received any relief goods because their place is hard to reach.
So my grandmother gathered some of the relief goods we received—a small help—but we wanted to share it because there are many others who need it more, and we’ve already received a lot of blessings, so why not share them, right?

The ride took us almost an hour to get there, even though we took a shortcut. It broke my heart to see so many people still sleeping outside in tents, many houses damaged, and some completely destroyed.

On our way home, my father stopped at a small eatery to have lunch because we were both really hungry. He was also asked by my uncle to buy some things, so we passed by Bogo—the epicenter of the earthquake. There were so many damaged and collapsed buildings in Bogo City. Seeing them all gave me goosebumps.

2 days after, we went to a place just minutes away from our barangay to visit someone—i'm with my father and grandmother(actually I have nothing to do that time so I joined them hehe). It's my first time seeing the places after what happened and same as I first time saw San Remigio and Bogo—I couldn't recognized the places we passed by too because of the big damages.

While we were passing by so many bridges, I was holding on tightly to the car handle because I was really scared. Almost all the bridges we crossed were still under construction — the sides weren’t even finished yet! And there was this one part of the road that was supposed to be smooth, but guess what, after the earthquake, it looked like a wave!

For the last part of this blog, I want to talk about the days after the earthquake — those moments when I tried my best to live normally again, even just for a while. It’s that feeling when you just want to breathe and stop thinking too much about what happened because it’s really suffocating. The fear is still there sometimes, especially when you remember the shaking and the noise. But even with that fear, life still goes on.

Things may have changed, but we should not forget to give time for ourselves — to rest, to find peace, and to slowly heal from what we went through. It’s not about forgetting the earthquake, but learning to live with what it taught us. Because even if the ground has stopped shaking, our hearts still need time to feel calm again.

Those calm and simple moments started to come back during the second week after the tragedy. I went for short afternoon walks with my little cousin and his mother. Since he already knows how to walk, we sometimes take him outside so he won’t be scared of people. We would stroll down the street and buy little snacks like ice cream and a bottle of C2 — small things that somehow brought comfort.

I also met up with my circle of friends because we had to get some school requirements for our university application in Cebu. We had random chit-chats, asked how everyone was doing, and talked about what we went through during the earthquake. Even though it was just a short time together, seeing them again and knowing that they and their families were safe made me feel so relieved.