The IRC visits the fishing village of Sua, where Marilyn Belga and her family barely escaped Typhoon Haiyan’s wrath exactly a year ago. Here's her story.
They thought they would weather the storm just as they had every other: Filipinos are no strangers to typhoons. On average, eight or nine make landfall every year and even more pass through the waters surrounding the archipelago nation. So they waited, safely, they thought, in their home. They waited until it was too late and waves as high as 17 feet crashed through their front door.
The children screamed as they swam from their house, the water over their heads. They swam until they found the first thing they could grab to keep from washing out to sea—a broken power line.