MIDY Daig held a lighted candle on Wednesday afternoon, her fingers tracing the etched name of her husband, Clyde Eddie Daig, on the Sendong Memorial Wall at Gaston Park. Fourteen years have passed since the floodwaters of Tropical Storm Sendong devastated the city, yet for survivors like the 64-year-old Daig, the memory remains as vivid as the scars on the landscape.
Flash floods tore through Sitio Cala-cala in the early hours of Dec. 17, 2011, leaving Clyde among 400 missing residents. Midy reached the safety of their second floor, but her husband vanished when the water swept him from the ground floor.
Midy and her three children narrowly escaped the 17-foot wall of water that submerged their village.
“I saw a wall of water crashing into our villages flooding homes and sweeping people and animals,” she said.
Midy swept away once the water reached the top floor. Fortunately, fishermen in El Salvador discovered her floating in Macajalar Bay and performed a successful rescue.
Over a decade later, the tragedy is fading from the city’s collective consciousness, known to the younger generation only through the oral histories of elders. To combat this forgetting, local artist Nic Aca used his body in a performance art piece before a crowd of onlookers and children at the memorial wall.
“It does not mean that if we have to move on we should forget what happened fourteen years ago,” said Aca, who has performed at every anniversary.
Aca noted that the aftermath of Sendong remains a poignant memory for survivors. He described the memorial wall as a powerful reminder of the tremendous loss suffered by a community that still bears the emotional scars.
