Filipinos in the city are hoping for the best after the strongest typhoon of the year slammed into the Philippines, killing at least four people and forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Winds of 170 miles an hour were recorded when Typhoon Haiya made landfall yesterday.
The storm has triggered flooding, landslides, and lightning strikes across the country’s central islands.
Some of the most strongly affected areas include regions still recovering from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake last month.
But officials say the Philippines appeared to avoid a major disaster because the storm was moving so fast.
Locally, parishioners at St. Sebastian’s on Woodside Avenue in Queens prayed for loved ones back home.
“Very scared and very lonely our whole country is very poor. They cannot sleep, they’re in tent,” said one Filipino New Yorker.
Edicel Lazo, a teacher at St. Sebastian’s school, was trying to be patient as she waited for word from loved ones. She said she is hopeful the country pulls through because Filipinos are used to being ravaged by major storms but worries because communications are down.
“I am so frustrated. I don’t know what’s going on. I have the Filipino channel at home and I’m here I can’t wait to go home and see, what’s really happening,” Lazo said. “They are very God loving people and will look to the positive side after a devastation like this. They always try to get up, move on.”
The typhoon is expected to move away from the Philippines and towards Southeast Asia this weekend.
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via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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