ONDOY's IMPACT!

Well, it's never too late to share something that really brought a BOOM! not only to me but to the whole country!

The following series of events took place during the attack...yes the attack of Typhoon Ondoy last September 25. Well first I will limit the parameters to our house...

So its a rainy morning. Typical. I thought. It was around 7 am. Shivers! So I went net surfing. 9 am. Still raining. Carry on. But after an hour, it's still the same sound. The sound of endless rainfall. What's weird is that it's continuous. I mean, the sound is still the same from an hour ago. Normally, rain fall will soon be minimized...

I decided to look outside. See if there's something wrong. Then BOOM! Water. Water world! Now I know we live in a floody barangay but our street has never been flooded before not like the other streets near the creek. And on that day, our street was submerged in 2 feet of water. What's more disturbing is, if our street which has never been flooded is now under 2 feet of water, what more do the 'below sea level' streets are experiencing?! Doing the math, I guessed it was probably 5 feet or something!

At TUMATAAS pa lalo! I called mom, who was completely clueless, and she was stunned. The flood was inches away to our door step. In a matter of minutes, water will invade our house! Help?

Damn! Bowshit! Taena! Name it! I was utterng the foulest words you could hear. I was in panic. The whole family was in panic. On the case of my brother who was still sleeping, he was also clueless. So I woke him up, and as I remembered it very clearly, this is my morning greeting to him, and I quote...

"JO! JO! Gising! Papasok na ang baha sa bahay! Malulunod tayo!"

And he just stared at me...kinda irritated and I understood what he meant...

"WEH! Pakyu! Natutulog eh!"

I was able to convince him to stand and look outside, and voila! Jaw-dropped. I'd like to say I told you so but he was still in the state of shock. Been there done that. Now move! We begun lifting some of our things. We were still hoping that the flood will subside. I was busy facebooking of how terrible this weather was and came to my senses. What the 'ef' am I doing?! I looked outside again to confirm the situation. Yup! Clear as the glass. We're dead! I knelt at our door step, lower down my head and observed the rising water! My brother joined me and we chanted "We're gonna die! We're gonna die" like this was something to fool about! At that time, I guess it haven't really sank into our minds.



And then swoosh! Water started flowing on our floor. Adrenalin rush? It's true! We were able to lift the sofa and all the other heavy stuffs. Mom screamed her ass out because of a centipede she just saw. I was irritated with her whining because hello? Our house is about to be submerged underwater! So we saved our appliances from waterworld extinction.



Because we were scared of electrocution, we shut the main switch down. Minutes later, the water reached our ankle. And we are not sure if this will get any worse. We observed the scenarion outside. Dramatic? Kinda. Comedic? Yeah. There were children playing...or rather swimming. They've made their own set of salbabidas and floating device. Balde, bola, plasti na puno ng plastic mineral bottles at eto pa...amplifier box! Yup! At alam mo ba kung ano nakasakay dun? ASO! Gawin ba namang bangka?!

Concentrating on the dramatic side, I saw this think 6-year old boy, swimming alone. I was very sure he was struggling, but the minute he saw my camera he smiled. A flash of smile that says I-know-it-seems-like-I'm-drowning-but-I'm-not. I was worried. Fortunately, his older brother came and smacked him with a stick, "Umuwi ka nang p***** i**** bata ka! Pag kaw malunod, g*** ka!". Brotherly love. I could relate. Hahaha!



Hours have passed and it's still raining. But the water stopped elevating. Good! And then I saw it! The horror! The horror! My most disgusted creature in the world. Cockroaches. Not just a bunch of anthropods but a whole uhmm..barangay I think. They've illegaly moved into our porch and it looked like an apartment of coackroach! Just see for yourself. I was planning to drive them away and then I realized...nahhh...but...but...can't believe I am saying these but these insects are evacuees! Yes they are, they drown in the flood and they need a higher place to stay. It was late when I realized, they are not alone.



Night came and since we haven't stocked up with some groceries, mom asked me to buy some dinner. I was able to see the outside world. Devasted! All kinds of trashes were everywhere! What do you expect in a whole day of raining?

We ate dinner and mom surfed the net for some news since out TV was broken. We are completely clueless. We saw videos and pics in facebook. It was disturbing. The impact on the other parts of the metro was beyong my understanding. I was cars being washed away like they were toys.

The next day, I jumped for joy for the suspension of classes for almost a week. I never realized how much the whole country is mourning. It was late when I finally realized that there is a reason...a big reason for such an act. We were updating ourselves through the internet and everyday it was becoming worse. More casualties and increasing death tolls. Numerous stories of missing person and survivor's experiences. I was no longer happy. I was sucked into deep feeling. This is definitely a warning from God.

A rain-filled typhoon code named 'Ondoy' left Metro Manila Philippines with 243 people dead and thousands homeless as a large part of metro Manila remain submerged in floodwater more than three days after the typhoon left the country.

And up to this day, our country is still facing the problem Ondoy has left us. And it was worsen by Pepeng. During my stay over the weekend on my aunt's place in Marikina, my cousin's wife was a survivor in recent typhoon. Knowing Marikina, it was one of the most devastated areas and has a lot number of deaths. She shared her experiences and you will truly feel how lucky you are to be facing just a little flood. My relatives in Marikina shared stories of how a mother watched in horror as her son was being swallowed by the flood, how a family stayed on their roof and hugged each other as they thought they were about to die and more untold stories in Provident Village. My aunt claimed that the government doesn't fully show the right number of death tolls as it would give a bad image on how the run things around.

Please join me and say a little prayer for the souls, for the devastated evacuees, for the family who was left with nothing...for all of us. May God save us and show mercy on His people.



So JAM's Exclamation Point of View...
on Typhoon Ondoy here in the Phil...
GOD save us!



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