Devastation of Typhoon Ondoy (edited)

Early Saturday, 26th of Septerber 2009, the Philippines, particularly those located in Central Luzon and Metro Manila experienced an event nobody had predicted would happen. After approximately 6 hours of countinous rain and with storm signal No. 1 raised by PAGASA, Metro Manila was drowned by typhoon Ondoy which carried an equivalent of 1 month of precipitation. This is by far the worst flooding experienced by Central Luzon in almost 4 decades.

Living in Quezon City, I was almost certain that our place is not suceptible to flood. However, I experienced first hand how other people feels when they begin to see flood water gushing in their homes. My mind was still refusing to accept the clear image of the water slowly climbing the steps of our door. As I feel the cold flood water embracing my feet, it dawned on me that I what I am seeing is real and that I need to move fast.

My mom and I began to carry as much stuff as we can upstairs. I began to rely on our cabinets to hold our appliances away from the flood. I thought the flood that invaded our house was more than enough but water kept on rising until our fridge began to sway. We had to support it with a wooden chair but as soon as we thought the fridge was stable, the washing machine began to sway together with the water as well. I felt hopeless and desperate. I can see my mom is also as helpless as I am. Amidst the chaos of our house, I began to see how our stuff turned into hopeless junks.

At times of desperation, all the material things you have becomes worthless and you'll only have your dear life to hold to. I am happy that even though almost all of our stuff was gone, we are all safe and we have peace in our hearts knowing that God had protected us from other disasters that might have happened. Inspite of all these, we are still blessed that my mom and I had each other during those desperate times and my sister and her friends are safe. Im thankful for my special someone, who inspite of the rain, flood and halted transportation on his way to our house, managed to rescue us. I believe God had sent him to aid us.

With the water continuously rising, my mom and I were convinced by my special someone and our neighbors to evacuated our house at around 7 or 8pm, which I think is more sensible than being trapped inside with no provisions. I packed up some clothes, prayed for our safety, and bid goodbye to the things that I onced treasured.

I am thankful to the good samaritans who have welcomed us to their home so we could change our drenched clothes and even fed us. It really was a humbling experience for me since I am not used to rely on other people for help. It was also through this family who "adopted" us for a few hours that we learned of what had happened to Rizal province, Marikina and the rest of Quezon City. It broke our family's heart knowing that we have friends residing in those areas but seeing that a lot of people taking the initiative to help our countrymen in distress had uplifted our spirits and I'm sure, gave other people hope.

To us who have been victimized by this typhoon, no matter how hard or how long, we will surely recover. As soon as we do, maybe it is time for us to consider what we need to do to prevent this disaster from happening again.

Note about the photos: Photos were taken early in the afternoon, before my mom and I realized how serious the typhoon was. I was not able to take photos during the later part of the day. I was worried I might damage my sister's camera who in turn might hate me forever.. :)