On the night of November 7, 2013, as the already immense Typhoon Haiyan gathered strength off the shores of Tacloban, Philippines, LEYECO II General Manager Macel Avestruz was in a meeting with her colleagues at the National Risk Reduction Management Council discussing pre-landfall preparations. It’s a familiar procedure for the council, which helps local agencies deal with some 20 typhoons a year. But this storm was different, and it would soon become apparent that no amount of preparation could bolster the community against Haiyan’s 190-mph winds and 20-foot storm surge.
Avestruz arrived at the co-op’s headquarters with her line crew at 5 a.m. the next day, minutes before the strongest tropical cyclone ever to make recorded landfall arrived on the shores of the Visayas in central Philippines. The four-hour battering it delivered would draw the world’s attention and test the grit, spirit, and faith of the Filipino people.
Avestruz’s husband was 32 miles to the north of Tacloban in the municipal hall of the town where he serves as chief executive. Her last contact with him was at 5:30 a.m. Her son was enrolled in a nearby seminary school but was at a retreat 20 miles west. She was unable to reach him. By 6 a.m., cell signals ceased, cutting Tacloban off from the world for days.
Despite deafening winds and blasts of broken glass, the now- roofless LEYECO II office became an impromptu evacuation center for LEYECO II crew members and their families. Over the next hour, the terrified contingent moved through the building, seeking safety from flying objects and rising waters. They eventually settled under a staircase where they huddled for three hours, praying and accepting the possibility of death.
By 10 a.m., the winds had died down, and Avestruz emerged with her linemen to check on their own homes and begin assessing damage.
“It was only then that I realized we were at ground zero,” she recalls.
While navigating the utter devastation—debris, downed lines, bodies—she saw her neighbor.
“The first thing he told me was, ‘You don’t have a house anymore,’” Avestruz says, choking up at the memory. “My first thought was to my house helper, who was in the house alone.”
The housekeeper survived, but Avestruz’s line manager’s wife perished in the storm. Another neighbor, a co-op teller, also died alongside her older son.
“There are 29 houses in our subdivision—only six remained standing. My house helper and I walked back to the office, which became my second home during the first month after the storm.”
Though her own family members were still unaccounted for, Avestruz set about the task of restoring power to her community and caring for her co-op family. Amid the chaos, she and her team formulated restoration plans during meager daily meals.
“I told my linemen that we had to start clearing roads to make it passable so we can receive help,” Avestruz said. “By November 12, FIBECO, the electric co-op from Mindanao, showed up on our doorstep, looking like angels.”
National Electrification Administration head Edith Bueno arrived via helicopter the next day.
“Two days passed after the typhoon, and we had no word from Macel or anyone from that region. Finally, she called,” Bueno said. “I told her, ‘I will come on the first available transport,’ and she worried about my accommodations and food. That is Macel.”
By the time Bueno arrived with food, supplies, and money to buy fuel and materials, more crews from electric co-ops in Mindanao had arrived to help.
Avestruz finally reached her husband five days after the typhoon silenced her phone. That same day, she had an emotional reunion with her teenage son while walking the streets of Tacloban.
Today, she commutes 32 miles from her old hometown to a still-damaged co-op office that she says “would fail a fire inspection.” She focuses each day on rebuilding and strengthening not just her co-op’s distribution system but also the well-being and stability of the community she loves. She says she takes inspiration from the hope that as people return to Tacloban, the memory of Haiyan will fade and their connections with each other will grow strong once again.