March 29 Confirmation, Immaculate
Conception Parish, Laurel
(along with Candidates
from St. Bernadette Parish,
Waynesboro), 5 pm
March 30 Mass, Nativity B.V.M.
Cathedral, 11 am
April 1 Confirmation, Holy Family
Parish, Pass Christian
(including Candidates from
Most Holy Trinity Parish,
Pass Christian), 6:30 pm
April 3 Confirmation, St. James
Parish, Gulfport, 7 pm
April 4-5 Jesuit Social Research Board
Meeting, Loyola University,
New Orleans
April 8 Confirmation, Our Lady of
Fatima, Biloxi, 7 pm
April 10 Presbyteral Council Meeting,
2 pm
April 10 Confirmation, St. Alphonsus
Parish, Ocean Springs, 6 pm
Woman who saved dozens wants to stay in
Tacloban community she loves
By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service
TACLOBAN, Philippines (CNS) -- Men-
tion the name of Maria Rosevilla Margate
and many of the residents of the community
known as Barangay 54A nod approvingly.
They know exactly where to find her.
People tell stories of her kindness and
friendship. Maria and her husband, Emman-
uel, have lived in the community just a block
from Redemptorist-run Our Lady of Perpet-
ual Help Church since 1983. For years, they
say, Maria Margate has helped her neighbors
in need.
Just like Nov. 8, the day Typhoon Haiyan
made a shambles of much of the central Phil-
ippines.
Maria Margate’s effort to shelter dozens
of neighbors in her family’s concrete-walled
home at the peak of the storm is well-known
in the barangay. For that, people are grateful.
She considers her actions nothing extraor-
dinary. “I’m just a good neighbor, maybe,”
she told
Catholic News Service
Feb. 10, seat-
ed at a small table in her dining room that is
protected only by a tarp.
But her story illustrates the close bonds
she has forged in her community and the de-
vout Catholic faith she practices in prayer and
attending daily Mass.
She recalled awakening before dawn that
day, hearing the wind rising in intensity, driv-
ing heavy rain onto the roof of her two-story
home.
“I saw the wind is getting stronger and
Emmanuel and Maria Rosevilla Margate
pose for a photo with family members
outside their home in Tacloban,
Philippines, Feb. 10. The family huddled
together in their block home Nov. 8, 2013,
as Typhoon Haiyan made shambles of
many homes in their community known
as Barangay 54A.
CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn
stronger. So I go down and I call all my
neighbors. ‘Please come up. Please come
up. The wind is getting stronger and stron-
ger.’
“Some of them said we’ll cook our food,
we will keep our stuff. I told them, ‘No, it’s
not important. The important (thing) is to
come up. Please come up.’”
She continued door to door as the wa-
ters began to rise. One family, two families,
three more. Finally she had to get to safety
herself. She thought that as many as 80 peo-
ple were in the small house.
They first gathered in the dining room
on the first floor with a few in an upper bed-
room. The roof above the dining room be-
gan vibrating in the wailing wind. Realizing
See Typhoon Haiyan, page 8
it could be torn off at any moment -- eventu-
ally it was -- she ushered everyone upstairs to
the bedroom, where a sturdier portion of the
roof offered more protection.
With everyone safely inside, Maria Mar-
gate wanted to get one more look outside to
see what was happening. She opened the door
leading to a small terrace across from the bed-
room. Maybe one more person was out there
who needed help, she thought.
“I saw the water. It was so black. Black
water, very, very black. When I pushed (the
door) to close again, the water rose up.”
She described what she saw as a vortex,
spinning round and round, swallowing every-
thing in its path.
She recalled three surges over the course
of about an hour, the final one being the high-
est -- perhaps 15 feet -- and the strongest. It
caused her home to shudder. It was then she
considered the possibility of dying.
“The last word I said was, ‘Lord, thy will
be done,’ and I closed my eyes.”
That’s when the flood waters vanished,
leaving behind death and destruction.
“I know it was a miracle because outside
of our house the water was here,” Maria Mar-
gate said, raising her right arm to her chest.
“But in our bedroom it was just this high,” she
said, pointing to her ankles.
When people finally began emerging,
they saw little left of their community. One-
story wooden and metal houses had become
matchsticks. Only a few taller houses made
of stronger materials remained standing, but
even they were severely damaged; not one
had a roof.
Some of the dead could be seen where the
houses once stood.
“When I came down here, I didn’t see
any stuff. No clothes. No appliances. But it’s
OK because I saved people. It’s only material
things.”
She said she was afraid she had devel-
oped a phobia: “When there’s a small wind,
I tremble.”
She gazed toward the serene bay, then
covered her face with her hands. Tears trick-
led down her cheeks. The churning waters of
death were real again.
“Sometimes after the typhoon, I don’t
want to remember anything,” she said.
Soon after the storm, the Margates headed
to Cebu, much farther inland on Leyte Island
and where one of their adult daughters lives.
While Cebu was affected by the storm, the
damage was much less severe than in Taclo-
ban and surrounding communities.
Gulf Pine Catholic
•
March 28, 2014
3
Gulf
Pine
Catholic
(ISSN No. 0746-3804)
March 28, 2014
Volume 31, Issue 15
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