They didn't seem to know what hit them. Mindanao provinces that have rarely been in the path of a storm suffered heavily from the impact of Typhoon Pablo on Tuesday, and its full extent is only now coming to light.
Some residents in Davao Oriental took shelter in flimsy evacuation centers that fell apart in the face of Pablo's ferocious winds, with one refuge reportedly swept away in a landslide with its terrified evacuees.
There was enough warning of the coming typhoon for authorities to evacuate residents in advance, but there was apparently a lack of solid structures in communities in rural southern Mindanao to serve as temporary shelters.
"We have 325 dead and this is expected to rise because many more are missing," civil defense chief Benito Ramos told a news conference.Despite the preemptive evacuation of residents hours before landfall, poorly built evacuation centers may have been the weak link in the response of authorities in Davao Oriental province to the threat from Typhoon Pablo (Bopha).
Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, head of the Army's 10th Infantry Division, said Wednesday that some of the evacuation centers in the province collapsed.
"Doon sa Davao Oriental and even sa Compostela Valley, nagkaroon ng preemptive evacuation Monday night ... Sad to say sa Davao Oriental ... sa lakas ng hangin, ulan at bagyo, talagang evacuation center may nag-collapse. They were not enough (In Davao Oriental and even Compostela Valley, we conducted preemptive evacuation Monday night. Sad to say, in Davao Oriental, some of the evacuation centers collapsed after being exposed to strong winds and heavy rain)," he said in an interview on dzBB radio.
Corn farmer Jerry Pampusa, 42, and his pregnant wife were marooned in their hut but survived.
"We were very scared," Pampusa said. "We felt we were on an island because there was water everywhere."
Another survivor, Francisco Alduisa, said dozens of women and children who had taken shelter in a village centre, had been swept away.