Typhoon Frank

It was neither a good gift, nor a fine surprise but the wrath of Typhoon Frank left a scathing mark in the life of every Capiceño: a legacy that they would never forget.
Capiz, as well as Iloilo, Aklan, and Antique is familiar to calamities like typhoons as she has more or less faced a lot already with varying strengths and intensities, but among all of them, Frank was considered worst. Some said that Frank even petered Typhoon Undang when the latter hit the province in 1987. Indeed, Frank was not just a typhoon; it was itself a calamity and a remembrance of Mother Nature’s anger.

The Unpredictable
Today, typhoons are really unpredictable as the weather is. Though the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Atmospheric Services Administration (PAGASA) monitors the weather condition of the Philippines, still, it is powerless to stop the will of nature.
Frank, also known his international codename Fengshen, after being monitored as a low pressure area, later turned to be a storm. He was expected to hit the upper portion of the country but unfortunately, due undetermined weather conditions, his direction changed and instead, he wrought havoc to Western Visayas.

It’s Undeniable
Capiz is one of the provinces that were hardly hit by the typhoons. The effect of Frank and his aftermath were very clear: wasted farmlands, uprooted trees, and shattered homes. Furthermore, Typhoon Frank damaged electrical wirings and knocked down electrical posts, bringing the province on the verge of darkness for a week or so.
Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the typhoon took the lives of four people, lucky enough compared to the gargantuan number of lives who perished in Iloilo and Aklan.
As houses were destroyed, the locals, according to Inquirer’s interview with Gov. Victor Tangco Sr., were forced to evacuate “to gymnasiums in schools from all of Capiz’s 16 municipalities.” Communication lines in the province were also cut off in the province and Aklan as the typhoon “knocked down cell sites, hampering submission of reports and rescue operations.” PDCC Action Officer Arnold Talabucon even divulged that “most roads in Capiz were impassible.”
Together with this disaster are the soaring prices of basic goods, like rice, canned goods, and noodles, prompting Hon. Esteban Contreras, board member of the first district of Capiz, to lead an investigation to the alleged hoarding and overpricing of these goods by local businessmen.
The aquaculture business in the province was also hampered by the typhoon causing the prices of fish and other marine products soared to meteoric heights. It even came to the point that no one wanted to buy fish in the fear that these might have eaten some body parts of those who died after the M/V Princess of the Stars just off the coast of Romblon. On the other hand, the agriculture industry of Capiz was totally blunted as the rice fields were turned into marshes by the Frank.
All in all, Typhoon Frank had subsequently hampered the local economy as he cost the Capiceños millions of pesos. But let us not solely focus our sight in the maladies; on the brighter side, Capiz was still fortunate enough to what she had endured. Thankfully, Capiceños never experienced the mudflows and the extreme floods that caused Jaro and Manduriao to sink in disparity and the lack of potable water that the Aklanons had endured for weeks.