This creative non-fiction is one of the greatest survival stories ever told. The novel looks into the humanity of the typhoon survivors as they dealt with the slow response of aid and rescue. Abandoned and isolated, they began to depend on the resilience of one another as they live off the land without food, water and medical services in the face of insurmountable odds. What could possibly have gone wrong?
The story follows several characters and the protagonist as they vividly recount the different episodes of the Typhoon Haiyan tragedy in a span of twelve days. He, together with fellow survivors, unravels the story with firsthand eyewitness accounts of what really happened on the ground amidst the impending humanitarian crisis that saw thousands fleeing the city in the face of hunger, chaos and the breakdown of law and order. With each day of delay of the rescue effort hangs the lives of thousands of survivors who depended on the timely intervention from the Philippine government. In the face of such resignation, the characters were able to survive miraculously in the face of such overwhelming odds. It narrates the interplay of human relationships from different perspectives, from the people who clung to desperation with the constant lack of food, water and medical services.
Haiyan was the strongest typhoon ever to hit landfall in recorded history. Eleven days were described by the survivors as worse than hell. With many areas not reached by aid, many have turned to scavenging, looting or worse banditry. The story follows each unique individual story, colorful on its own, on how each character managed to pull it through during those first crucial eleven days. It reconciles facts from fallacy, gathering print and downloaded data of the monstrous tragedy even as the protagonist tells it from his own point of view.