On the night of Saturday, December 17th, 2011, a devastating tidal wave of the Cagayan River reached the city of Cagayan de Oro as a result of the typhoon "Sengdong", which was called "Washi" in Europe. Within a few minutes, the water rises from the river by 10 meters and simply washes away the shanty towns that are located next to the river. The people, surprised in their sleep, jump from roof to roof to save themselves. This is often in vain as the buildings collapse beneath them.

According to Wikipedia there had been 1,268 fatalities, 181 people missing, and 6,071 injuries:
See: Tropical Storm Washi - Wikipedia

Even the Center of Gugma sa Cabataan was flooded. Since the building is constructed with bricks, it won't be swept away by the floods, unlike many of the wooden huts in which our children and their families lived

  1. The brown color in the frame indicates the level of the water in our center.
  2. In the school it was that high.
  3. For this house the water of the river reached up to the roof.

Here is a short timeline of the events from the view of Gugma sa Kabataan:
(all in German except the message from January 11)

A tent city for the evacuated people