Tacloban Lost 15,000 Lives Prior To Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)!

A friend shared a very interesting story with me yesterday regarding what happened in Tacloban many, many years back.

The year was 1912 when it first happened, so the recent super storm that swept Tacloban recently was not actually the first, it was the 2nd and the first (being in the years where help was not as accessible as today) took 15,000 lives... wow...

Here is the copy of the old paper bearing the sad news... The Washington Herald

Here’s the report's full text:

"That 15,000 persons were probably killed and wounded in a typhoon that swept the Philippine Islands last Tuesday was reported yesterday in cable dispatches to the Bureau of Internal Affairs.

The typhoon swept the Visayas and is said to have practically destroyed Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, and to have wrought enormous damage and loss of life at Capiz, the capital of the province of Capiz.

Tacloban has a population of 12,000. Capiz has a population of over 20,000. Capiz is the terminal of the railroad from Iloilo. It is the most important sugar port.

Aid Rushed to Scene

The first news of the catastrophe came in a dispatch from the governor general of the Philippines. No figures of the dead or injured were given, but it was stated that probably half the population of the two cities had been lost.

The governor general sent his dispatch on Thursday. He informed the department that he was rushing a shipload of food, clothing, and all available medical supplies to Tacloban. All telegraphic noypistuff communication has been destroyed, and it is impossible to get other than vague reports of the extent of the disaster. That Tacloban has suffered an enormous loss of life is believed to be certain.

Following the receipt of the dispatch announcing the heavy casualties in the Visayas, the Red Cross prepared to rush a relief fund to the governor general. The Washington office has cabled the insular government asking how great their need is."

So what happened last November 8th was not new afterall... Maybe it is about time they change the building codes for the location. may those people who perished during this storm serve their purpose, to wake up everyone that CHANGE should begin NOW... I hope and pray that this never happens again, but hey, we can always hope for a better tomorrow with the help of Good Governance.