Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- As thousands of traumatized typhoon survivors struggled to escape the stricken city of Tacloban , Gina Ladrera was desperate to get back in . It had been five days since Super Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines coast , obliterating everything in its path . And five days since she 'd last heard from her family : husband Pedro Ladrera Jr. , and their two children , 10-year-old daughter Kyra and 11-year-old son Kim . For the 39-year-old domestic worker living in Hong Kong , the silence was too much to bear . She had to go back home to find them . And miraculously , she did . READ MORE : Mother 's grief as Haiyan aid flows . Leaving Hong Kong . CNN first spoke to Ladrera on Tuesday evening , four days after the typhoon . She was packing for the flight from Hong Kong to Cebu . From there she hoped to fly to Tacloban City , then somehow travel more than 10 miles ( 17 kilometers ) south to her hometown of Tanauan , a city of around 50,000 people . Ladrera 's voice broke as she recalled the last time she spoke with her husband , the previous Thursday , hours before screaming winds sent a wall of water slamming into the coast . `` He told me , 'do n't worry , they can manage , my two kids . ' It was the last words for me : 'Do n't worry , I can manage my kids . ' That was the last thing he told to me , '' she said , bursting into tears . The Ladreras are used to separation . Gina has been working in Hong Kong for more than two years , sending money to her 39-year-old husband , Pedro , a security guard , to help him provide for their children . Asked to describe them , Ladrera says Kyra is `` very clever , '' before adding in a stilted , tearful laugh , Kim is `` very lazy to do his homework , he likes to play . '' VIDEO : Haiyan 's path of destruction . Ladrera is one of hundreds of thousands of domestic workers who leave the Philippines to earn money abroad . In the days after the storm , she feared Haiyan may have separated her family forever . `` I asked them to evacuate in another place or another house but ( my husband ) did n't know the typhoon was very worse . I do n't know if they evacuated , '' she said . `` I ca n't talk to them . '' For hours after the storm hit , she tried calling her husband and daughter 's mobile phones . There was no answer . By Friday afternoon , there was n't even a signal . She had n't heard from neighbors , or anyone who knew them . Days later , the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong had no record of their whereabouts . With the help of her Hong Kong employers , Ladrera packed a large backpack with food , water , a tent and sleeping bag and left for a place described by survivors as `` worse than hell . '' Returning to Tacloban . Ladrera flew from Hong Kong to Cebu on Wednesday morning with a friend , Rita Ladenia , a fellow domestic worker from Hong Kong who was also frantic with worry about her husband and five-year-old son . Ladenia had heard her family was alive but needed to find out for sure . Once in Cebu , the women immediately booked tickets to fly to Tacloban the following morning . Ladrera said she was nervous , scared and worried about having her bag stolen by starving survivors desperate for rations . She was n't sure how long she 'd stay or what she 'd find . Ladrera planned to meet her friend 's husband at the airport who would take her by motorbike to her family 's home , where she hoped to find them safe and well . For whatever reason , that plan did n't work . Losing contact . After the typhoon , mobile signals were sporadic at best in Tacloban , a city splintered by the force of Haiyan , which smashed into the coast on Friday , November 8 , bringing a storm surge that caught many locals by surprise . Ladrera had a local mobile but repeated calls to the number were met with the message : `` The subscriber can not be reached . Please try again later . '' Her friend Ladenia , who was reunited with her husband at the airport , sent a message to friends in Hong Kong that Ladrera had left the airport with a film crew from GMA-7 , a Filipino news channel . A GMA-7 producer told CNN they had spoken to her at the airport , but said when they returned later to pick her up for the trip to her home town she was gone . There was no sign of her on Friday , one week after the typhoon , and no way to tell her the news she 'd been so desperate to hear , that her husband and children had survived the storm and were safe . `` We had an agreement with Gina that if she gets in her place she was going to call me back . I 'm also worried about her . I 've not heard from her , '' Ladenia said on Friday . It was n't until Saturday that word came through that Gina had made it to Tanauan and had been reunited with her family . She sent a text message to her friend -- all were safe . READ MORE : Survivors question faith . ' I 'm so blessed because I found them ' Only later did it emerge the lengths Ladrera had gone to to get home , and her family 's astonishing story of survival as the storm lashed their house , and all but flattened the entire town . From Tacloban Airport , Ladrera begged for a ride from the Philippines military aboard a truck to Palo . From there , she rode with police to her home town of Tanauan . Everything was gone . But amid the debris , was her family , sheltering in a makeshift hut her husband made from what he could salvage from the remains of their house . `` They were very shocked . They did n't expect to see me . They were crying tears of joy , and then also my children , they did n't know what they 're feeling . I 'm so blessed because I found them , '' she said . Her husband , two children and parents-in-law had survived by clinging onto electrical wiring on the rooftop for four hours until the storm passed , she said . They were bruised and scratched by flying debris ; minor injuries compared with the devastation around them . Neighbors gave them dry clothes , and a day later someone handed them rice and water . When Ladrera arrived home , there was no food left . She gave them what she had in her backpack then set about getting them out . They returned to Tacloban and on Sunday night caught a flight to Cebu . From there they 'll fly to Manila before heading to her mother 's home in Luzon . The children are in shock , she said , and are screaming in their sleep : `` They are crying no , no , no . '' Ladrera plans to ensure her family is safely settled before she returns to work in Hong Kong . `` I 'm starting from zero , '' she said , aware of the time it 'll take to earn the money to rebuild her family 's home and lives . `` I will go back to Hong Kong , I need to . I need to work because of my family , '' she said . Another separation looms ahead . READ MORE : The body collectors of Tacloban .
Typhoon Haiyan flew from Gina to Tacloban to find her missing family . She 'd been unable to contact them for Almost one week after Super Gina Ladrera . days after typhoon , she found them alive amid ruins of their home . Her family survived by clinging to electrical wire on the roof during the storm .