ondoy

what a saturday to remember. no, it wasn't about a good gimik with friends or a nice movie. it was all about rains and flood.

ondoy brought a whole september month's supply of rain in just five hours to the whole metropolis, central luzon, southern tagalog and bicol region. the result... floods all over luzon, particularly in low-lying areas like camanava and southern metro manila. the worst hit however, was the marikina, pasig and cainta, where massive floodwaters submerged almost 95% of the areas.

in makati, where floods are already expected, sudden rise in floodwaters caused an almost complete halt in business activities. (thanks to aby for these pics!) even ayala area was flooded but the san antonio village was turned into a venice-like canal/ river system. i woke up at around 9:30 am to see waters already creeping in banuyo street. i went back to bed and decided to take a shower at around 10:30. after getting done, the flood was already knee-deep and the bldg admin staff were in a state of panic. apparently, the floodwaters already reached the building's circuit breaker and electricity needed to be cut off. ayun. after another 20 minutes, the water was already waist-deep. from 12 noon to 6 pm, floodwaters were only 2 1/2 steps from reaching the condo's floor level. this would've been a bigger disaster for me, as i stay at the building's first floor. thankfully, the rain subsided a bit towards the early evening. good thing that i had rice and canned goods, as i only had 80 pesos. i even used 40 pesos for e-load, so that left me with only 40 pesos for the rest of the day. there was no way of getting out of san antonio village, so tenants had to share food and supplies. some of them already had a mini-party outside my door, drinking and singing, so as to while away time and forget that their cars were completely submerged in the condo's basement parking. at around 10 pm, power was finally back. but cable was still affected so news were virtually nil. going online was the only way, as text messages were delayed.

in novaliches, floodwaters entered our house, waist-deep, while in the streets, it was up to chest level. this was the very first time that our home was flooded. i was born there, but we haven't experienced any flood ever. the sudden burst of water from la mesa, angat and ipo dams caused the tullahan rivers and other tributaries to overflow and flood half of our barangay. good thing that we have a second floor, so my folks can get to a higher level. but of course, the rise of the floodwaters were so sudden that they were not able to save most of the appliances and furnishings, both in the living room and kitchen. haaayyy. most of our neighbors evacuated to the covered court.

i only had 40 pesos but luckily, i had enough smart bro load to go online, even for an hour and a half as my batt was running out. from facebook posts and breaking news from inquirer.net, disasters like this is really an equalizer, even richer income levels were heavily affected such as celebs, politicos and those living in exclusive villages like corinthian gardens. not that i rejoice in what has happened, but this only shows that we have to be prepared and accept that fact that no one's invulnerable to nature's wrath. these days, even areas that are previously not flood-prone, can easily be submerged and swamped suddenly.

i really do hope and pray that we won't have to experience another ondoy anytime soon. better, not anymore in this lifetime.