Words cannot even begin to describe what befell Metro Manila on the night of September 26. Everyone expected a storm, but not with a magnitude as bad as this.
It’s like The Day After Tomorrow, the Philippines Edition.
Ondoy came and ripped through the entire NCR with no mercy and no signs of letting up at all. No city was spared. The cities that absorbed the most punishment were Pasig (where I reside), Marikina, Cainta, Antipolo, Caloocan, basically all cities that were close to the rivers. The situation was so bad that all surrounding dams had to be opened since the risk of the dam breaking has been raised to red-alert level. Both the NLEX and SLEX were closed, leaving many people stranded and the lucky ones being forced to spend the night in buses and their vehicles. I call them lucky because at the least, they were able to seek temporary shelter from the furious assault of Ondoy.
Here’s a personal account:
We live in an area in Pasig that has a high terrain, so we were spared from the floods and power blackouts. However, the same could not be said for the areas Pinagbuhatan, Mercedes and Rosario. My aunt’s 80-year mother and aunt lives in Parkwood Subdivision in Mercedes, and thanks to the fury of this storm, she got trapped in her own home, surrounded by chest-deep water that has flowed into her home.
Naturally, we were worried sick. Mercedes was already inaccessible to all vehicles, including trucks and buses. But we couldn’t let my aunt’s mom stay trapped there, she’s already 80 years old, and we had to get her out of that hell-hole, no matter what. Together with my aunt, cousin and our burly manang, we braved the treacherous flood that reeked to high heavens and was afloat with all kinds of crap that you could ever imagine.
My uncle drove us to Pasig-Rotonda. He could have taken us further, had the roads been still passable. But Rotonda was the end of the line for my uncle’s pick-up truck. My uncle lent me his waterproof flashlight and we continued on foot to Parkwood subdivision, a good 20 minutes away (without the flood).
As we neared Mercedes, the waters were slowly and disturbingly becoming deeper. All sources of electricity were absent. An above-chest level of flood water and pitch black darkness stood in our way to my aunt’s mother’s house. There was a possibility that the waters were infested with snakes and frogs (which happen to be my ultimate phobia). But right now, the lives of my aunt’s mom and auntie were more important than my fears. We trudged on through the long stretch of flood and darkness for about an hour. The waters did not even subside, but it was better that way, rather than to let it grow deeper.
When we got to my aunt’s home, they were in such a sorry state that we felt that we needed to get them out right then and there, even if it means carrying them on our backs and going back to that awfully long road in Mercedes. Fortunately for us, a group of good Samaritans in the form of street children helped us carry my aunt’s mom and auntie with the use of an inflatable bed. We took the road to Stella Maris instead, we didn’t want to go back to Mercedes.
After the rescue operation, my tita bought Andoks liempo and chicken as a reward for all of us. We ate like we just came out from a major workout at the gym, that’s how much the effort took its toll on us.
After God flooded the Earth and saved Noah’s family, He promised that he would never flood the earth again. After recalling that bible story, I realized that the devastating aftermath of Ondoy was not an act of God.
It was our own.
