A British teacher has been hailed a hero for saving his family and neighbours during Typhoon Haiyan – by herding them into a SHIPPING CRATE.
Brave Keith Wakefield, 61, runs a foreign language school in the Philippine’s Tacloban City, which suffered some of the worst devastation in the November 8 super-storm.
As 200mph winds howled around them quick-thinking Keith remembered a discarded cargo container that was rusting away on his land.
He rounded up his Filipino wife Elaine and her family then dashed outside to find their neighbours before leading them all to the metal hulk.
Keith bundled them all inside the 20ft long container – just as his house was ripped apart by winds.
Keith, originally from Exmouth, Devon, said: “The wind started getting much stronger while we were moving things to the safety of the container.
“Suddenly the front door was blown open. I managed to force it closed and was holding it while my wife and her brother and sisters were trying to hold things down.
“My adopted daughter was blown off her feet and thrown against the wall. I grabbed her and told everyone to get into the container.
“Within minutes the house was disintegrating around me as I struggled to get the container doors closed. I feared I had left it too late to save everyone.
“As we waited it out we could hear all sorts of things crashing into the sides of the container.”
Keith opened a language school teaching English to nurses and doctors in Tacloban City on the island of Leyte, where he built a house for himself and Elaine.
