When Disasters Hit the Mountains: Beatriz’s Story from an Isolated Indigenous Community

PORAC, PAMPANGA ─ Living in a geographically isolated upland area, the Aeta community of Sitio Pidpid in Barangay Sapang Uwak, faces daily challenges in meeting basic needs—especially access to food, clean water, and a stable income. When climate disasters hit, these struggles become even more difficult to overcome.

Beatriz, 75, who has spent her entire life in Sitio Pidpid and knows these hardships by heart, shares her story: the challenges she faced during the recent tropical cyclones, how life has been in their aftermath, and how the support she received helped her recover and regain a sense of hope.

In the Wake of the Storms

In mid to late July 2025, successive tropical cyclones—Crising (Wipha), Dante (Francisco), and Typhoon Emong (Co-May)—intensified the Southwest Monsoon (Habagat) and brought heavy, prolonged rains across Northern Philippines. Central Luzon was among the hardest hit. Widespread flooding and landslides submerged entire communities, disrupted livelihoods, and forced thousands of families to evacuate.

In Pampanga alone, more than 500,000 residents were reportedly affected, prompting the province to declare a state of calamity on July 24. Other provinces in Central Luzon faced similar challenges, particularly remote upland and indigenous communities cut off by damaged roads, swollen rivers, and unsafe terrain.

In Sitio Pidpid, an upland Aeta community in Porac, the disaster turned long-standing challenges into life-threatening conditions. For Beatriz, 75, and many others like her, isolation—already part of daily life in the mountains—became a heavy burden. Roads were blocked, electricity and mobile signal were lost, and the community waited anxiously for help, unsure when support might reach them.

In photo: Beatriz is showing Action Against Hunger, the mountain from which water flowed directly into her house when the typhoon hit Barangay Pidpid. Photo by Martina Vercoli for Action Against Hunger.

“The water came from everywhere.”

When Typhoon Emong struck, water entered Beatriz’s home from two directions: heavy rain from above and runoff cascading down the mountain behind her house. Panic set in—her husband, now bedridden, could not move on his own. With the help of a neighbor, she tried to get him to safety while lifting their belongings onto an elevated wooden platform inside the house. Despite their efforts, two to three feet of floodwater quickly filled the room.

Amid the chaos, Beatriz courageously climbed up to the roof in the middle of the storm to try to secure it with stones and keep it from being torn away. While up there, she broke down in tears, feeling completely helpless. “The winds were too strong,” she recalls. “The roof was eventually blown off.” With nothing left to protect them, she and her husband huddled in a corner, covering themselves only with a sheet of plastic.

The next morning, exhausted and overwhelmed, they wept together. With relatives away and access routes blocked, help felt distant—until, she says, “Action Against Hunger came to offer assistance right after the tropical storm.” Their home still needs repairs, but the support brought relief, stability, and hope at a time when they had little left to hold on to.

Life in the uplands

For Beatriz, access to water has always been one of the hardest parts of daily life. Before any support reached Sitio Pidpid, residents depended on a river about one kilometer away. Each day, Beatriz would walk to the river, fill four large jerry cans, and carry them back to her home. The weight, combined with the distance and steep terrain, made the task physically exhausting. With her husband now bedridden and fully dependent on her, the responsibility of ensuring their household had enough water rested entirely on her shoulders.

In photo: Beatriz is showing Action Against Hunger how she used to fetch water from the river before the rainwater collection system of the ECHO-funded ACCESS project, was built in the barangay. Photo by Martina Vercoli for Action Against Hunger.

Food was another constant worry. Even before the storms, finding something to cook often meant hiking up the nearby mountain to gather puso ng saging or banana hearts, sweet potatoes, and root crops. After the disasters, the difficulty intensified. With no stable income and limited mobility due to her caregiving duties, there were days when she had to ask strangers for food or money just to get by.

Life had been different two years earlier, when her husband was still able to walk. They farmed together outside the village and stayed in a small shelter near their fields. But with his illness worsening, Beatriz now carries the full burden of providing, caring, and managing everything at home.

In photo: Beatriz does laundry using the water collected from the rain water system installed by the ACCESS project.

Despite these hardships, she places immense value on education. Having reached only grade one herself, she sees schooling as a path to freedom: a way for her grandchildren to break free from poverty and challenge the discrimination faced by Indigenous communities. One of her grandchildren is about to finish elementary school, something that fills her with pride. Whenever she can save even a small amount, she gives it to them to support their studies.

When asked how she copes with stress, especially with the increasing threats brought by climate hazards, Beatriz shared that most days she “has no one to talk to.” Her granddaughter, who studies away from home, only visits on Fridays. The rest of the week, Beatriz faces her burdens alone. “It is very liberating for me to cry,” she said, describing how tears have become her release in moments of overwhelm.

Aid reaches the most isolated

In the days following the storm, communities in remote upland areas like Sitio Pidpid, home to many Indigenous families, were among the hardest to reach. Blocked and damaged roads made movement nearly impossible, leaving families cut off from essential services and support.

To respond, Action Against Hunger deployed emergency teams across Central Luzon to conduct rapid needs assessments in the most affected and geographically isolated areas. Despite the challenging terrain, coordinated multi-sectoral interventions were mobilized within 36 hours through the swift support of multiple funding agencies and partners.

In photo: The WASH engineer shows Action Against Hunger staff in Sitio Pidpid a component of the water collection system installed in the community and funded by the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. (Photo by Martina Vercoli for Action Against Hunger.)

One of the most urgent needs was water. With support from the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid, the ACCESS consortium, with Action Against Hunger as an implementing partner, installed a rainwater collection system in Sitio Pidpid. The new system now provides families with a reliable and accessible water source, easing the everyday burden of fetching and storing water. ACCESS also distributed advocacy materials to help residents safely clean, store, and use harvested rainwater for daily needs.

In photo: In photo: The rainwater collection system in Sitio Pidpid is funded by the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. (Photo by Martina Vercoli for Action Against Hunger.

For families like Beatriz’s, this improved access to water brought immediate relief. Complementing this, the multi-purpose cash assistance provided by Action Against Hunger through the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), enabled her to buy food and essential household items at a time when traveling to the town proper and earning an income were extremely difficult. “The support meant everything,” she shared, especially because she cannot leave her husband alone for long periods.

In photo: Action Against Hunger staff conduct an awareness-raising session on the cash assistance supported by SIDA in the community of Sitio Pidpid. (Photo by Martina Vercoli for Action Against Hunger.)

Beatriz’s story reflects the strength of Indigenous communities as they face the increasing impacts of climate change. It shows how timely support and recovery initiatives play a crucial role, not only in providing basic needs to the communities affected by natural disasters, but also, in restoring dignity and hope, encouraging those affected to move forward when everything seems hopeless.

Every form of assistance, from emergency relief to lasting access to clean water, says Beatriz, “It is a step toward a safer and more secure future for my home, Sitio Pidpid.”
Written by: Martina Vercoli
Edited by: Joyce Sandajan