Shared Voices of the Survivors’ Journey in Coping with Trauma after the Worlds’ Strongest Thypoon Haiyan: Suffering, Caring and Faith

Jefferson Garcia Guerrero

St. Paul University Philippines, Cagayan, Philippines

Dr. Jefferson Garcia Guerrero, St. Paul University Philippines, Cagayan, Philippines.

Keywords: Shared Voices; Coping; Descriptive Phenomenology; Suffering; Caring; Faith

Abstract

There have been a variety of natural disasters experienced worldwide. Some of them have really made history because of their devastating, long-lasting effects. Natural disasters will continue to occur, and most of them occur with little to no warning. People affected by disasters had shown difficulty in coping with these occurrences. Government interventions focused more on the rebuilding efforts but lesser emphasis has been made to focus on people’s means of coping.
The earthquake that hit Japan in 2011 registered a magnitude of 9.0. That made it the strongest quake ever recorded in their history. This quake left millions dead, injured or missing; it also destroyed buildings and even caused a disaster that could have led to nuclear disaster. The tsunami waves as high as 23.6 m (77 ft.) were triggered which touched Japan within minutes of the earthquake. A powerful earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale struck an industrial city with approximately one million inhabitants of Tanshan, China. The massive earthquake caused the death of thousands of people and caused irreparable damage to property and life. It is estimated that around 255,000 people lost their lives (GRID 2016).
The Haiti earthquake in 2010 is a recent natural disaster. It registered a magnitude of 7.0, which is one of the strongest earthquakes and left over 200,000 deaths, and millions were left homeless and in need of emergency assistance (GRID 2016).
It is, thus, imperative that people must be prepared for disasters, because nobody ever knows when these can strike. After all, most of these disasters are not something that people thought would ever happen.

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