Pope braves storm as he comforts typhoon victims

Associated Press

TACLOBAN, Philippines

Pope Francis braved an approaching tropical storm Saturday to travel to the far eastern Philippines to comfort survivors of the deadly Typhoon Haiyan. He was so emotionally undone by their loss that he barely found the words to offer solace and then had to cut the trip short because of the dangerous weather.

Before he left the typhoon-wracked city of Tacloban, though, a soaking wet Francis brought many in the crowd to tears as he ached at their suffering and recounted how in the days after the Nov. 3, 2013, storm he decided that he simply had to come in person to offer his comfort.

“I wanted to come to be with you,” he told a rain-soaked crowd during Mass on a muddy airport field. “It’s a bit late, I have to say, but I am here.”

Haiyan slammed the areas around Tacloban with a storm surge two stories high and some of the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone: 147 miles per hour, as clocked by U.S. satellites. It leveled entire villages, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

“Pope Francis cannot give us houses and jobs, but he can send our prayers to God,” said Tacloban resident Ernesto Hengzon, 62. “I’m praying for good health and for my children, too. I am old and sickly. I’m praying that God will stop these big storms. We cannot take any more of it. We have barely recovered. Many people are still down there.”

Francis joined Haiyan’s victims in solidarity, donning the same cheap, plastic, yellow rain poncho over his vestments that Mass-goers were given to guard them against the latest storm to batter their island.

It didn’t offer much protection. Francis insisted on traveling around Tacloban in his exposed, open-sided popemobile, and he and his aides were so drenched by the time they boarded the earlier-than-expected flight back to Manila that trip organizers begged the flight crew to cut the air conditioning lest they catch cold.