THAT all-too-familiar fear coming with the first heavy gust of wind and strong lash of rains in their own backyard gripped the hearts of Pangasinenses, especially Dagupenos, once again last Sunday afternoon as Frank stormed into the province.

Everyone who had gone through killer howler Cosme earlier last May 17 were anxiously waiting for that certain degree of ugliness in the wind force anew, a sure sign of a repeat disaster at a time when everyone has hardly recovered from the first calamity.

Thankfully, to the One Above most of all, the wind did not get any fiercer. And in the hours before midnight, the residents knew the worse was over.

Still, many of the poorer families who have not even fully rebuilt their shanties and makeshifts fell victims twice over. Many of the slum dwellers in their makeshift roof covers found themselves again roofless and for the most part of Sunday evening, simply let the rains lash them and their belongings till Nature itself, having spent its fury, left them alone, drenched and shivering to await the break of dawn.

It is a scene that, we shudder to think, could be repeated several times more this year (maybe ten times yet or more – what did Pag-asa say about the number of incoming typhoons to expect?) even as the blessed agencies put in charge of rehabilitation after Cosme, have yet to fully distribute their loads of, uh, relief (?) assistance.

One local TV reporter, perhaps unconsciously, put it quaintly when he asked with some innocence if the disaster coordinating councils could handle the “overlapping of damages” from each typhoon, going by the frequency with which typhoons are coming in. He did not say it in so many words but he could have voiced the common thoughts running thru the viewers’ minds: How effectively could government continue to cover relief and rehabilitation grounds before its knees buckle down from the constant battering?

Your answer is as good as ours.