Ondoy (Ketsana) Experience

I know it's been a while but I thought I'd just share it.

It's just like any other Saturday. I wake up in excitement to use my computer seeing as though I'm not allowed to do so during the weekends. It was 8:30am, I had just woken up and my mother has just gotten home from her work as a team leader in a call center. I had then eaten my breakfast. By then, I was already 9am since I was lazing around before I ate. I ran up to my room and booted up the computer. I was just browsing the web when the power fluctuated. I rebooted only for it to happen to me again. So, I decided to use the laptop instead. It was already 9:30am and the water outside was getting higher by the minute. However, I wasn't afraid since we had lived there for 5 years now and never has the water gone into our house. Storms in the Philippines are very frequent that's why we don't take it much seriously. Neither do our neighbors, friends and family do. My dad had already moved the car to higher ground much earlier. I then went downstairs. It was already 9:45am and so I asked our helper where my dad was and she told me that he was helping our neighbor get her car to higher ground since the water nearly engulfed it. I then proceeded upstairs. But before doing so, I told our helper to put any wires and what not on tables to prepare if any water would come in. I then got upstairs and proceeded with what I was doing. After about ten minutes, our helper called me and told me that m dad's sister was calling. I answered the phone and heard her screaming at the top of her lungs crying for help. I was shocked and didn't know what to do. In my mind I was thinking "What the hell can I do. I live miles away from you" and so I did what I could to calm her down at the least. She was already crying because the walls surrounding their house had given way and right behind that very house was a creek. The high water levels and its weight had put the wall in an immense amount of stress until it could take no more. At the time she had called, the water inside their house was already up to their necks with them already standing on a sofa. The reason that she had called me was because it was only our home phone number that she knew since she worked abroad. I then had to let go of her call. I called her sister who luckily lives in the same subdivision. I told her that her sister was crying for help. She tried to go there but couldn't make it because the water was too high and the current was too strong. After making the call to her sister, I went back upstairs to chat with friends. In less than the 30 minutes I was chatting with them, the water had already started to get higher and higher and we were already preparing for the water to enter our house. I ran upstairs and said goodbye to the people I was chatting with and put the laptop away. Right after tat, my dad had gotten home and the water was already coming in our house. My dad tried to stop the water wit some plywood but failed. After that, we just started bringing things upstairs with the hopes that the water won't go up very high. They then brought about getting the fridge to a higher place. They got some 2 inch thick pieces of wood and set the refrigerator atop. In the ten minutes following that, the water had already gone up enough to nearly reach the fridge. They brought it up to the landing of our staircase so that it wouldn't be a problem. Bringing all our stuff upstairs was hard. We didn't have a big house but it was the first time I noticed that we had so many things. The task assigned to me was bringing the shoes upstairs. Since we had many of them, I had a hard time bringing them up two pairs at a time. I then saw a bucket and put at least eight pairs of shoes there at a time and the just literally dumped it in my room. After that, it was literally just chaos everywhere. All our neighbors were also bring thing upstairs. From 10am-1pm, we were bringing anything that we could upstairs. By this time, the water had already reached just below the waist. My dad was also able to make it to Burger King™ and get us some food for lunch. After eating, we finalized our packing of clothes. At 2pm, we left our house. Out on the street, the water was already up to my neck. We walked three blocks to where the car was parked and was thinking of were we could stay for that night. Luckily, there was a nearby hotel where we were able to get ourselves a room and were able to stay for a few days. It was Monday when my parents wanted us to go to our grandmother's house on my mother's side of the family where we would stay for a few days while they cleaned up our house. It was only 2 days after Ondoy's onslaught across Manila. Everybody was busy cleaning their houses that barely anybody could work on their cars that were submerged along the highway which brought about chaotic traffic. You had to literally wait an hour to move a cars length. Many people desperately trying to get to places were forced to walk. We, too, had to walk. We walked for about a kilometer or so before the traffic was clear enough for us to get a ride. While on our way, we still encountered heavy traffic but I was moving. Along the roads, you could see some emergency vehicles counter flowing and people trying to get cars out of the way for them. You could also see many car repair shops that, up to now, are still littered with cars. We then got to our grandmother's house where we would stay for about a week. There, there was no sign at all that floods had been there. A few blocks away, where my other grandmother lived, it was a whole other story. Their house had mud up to above the knees. It was sad to see that so much of my life that I've spent in that very house is now gone. All the memories that not only I, but everyone else who's been in that house. It's now been a month or so and you can still see signs of Ondoy's presence. However, because of the resilience of us Filipinos, we have restored our lives back to normal.