Ondoy… The name sounds harmless doesn’t it? It’s just like any other boy’s nickname, but this particular name sent chills down my spine, gave me sleepless nights and possibly a few zits and high blood pressure.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, the whole Metro Manila and the surrounding towns and cities in Rizal (i.e. Cainta, Pasig City, Marikina City) got hit by one of the worst storms ever last weekend, 26-27 September 2009. According to news reports, the typhoon brought down an equivalent of 1-month’s supply of rain water within 12hours of hitting land. ‘Mega’-Manila was soon covered in murky flood, which reached up to the 3rd floor of buildings in some areas. That typhoon was named ‘Ondoy.’
Saturday, 26th September
Saturday was laundry day for me. After the horrendous dust storm last Wednesday that enveloped a good part of Oz with dust and left me and my classmates stranded at uni for the whole day, I figured it would be wise to wash off all the dirt and do some major vacuuming in my room. I spent a good half day or so washing the curtains and sheets, doing a fair bit of vacuuming any surface I laid my eyes on and replacing the flowers on the vase.
I got wind (pardon the pun) of the typhoon in Manila from my former office’s mass updates to its staff at about midday. At first, it said Metro Manila is now under typhoon signal one, wait for updates blah blah blah – the usual stuff. When it got to the part where it said that the many parts are now flooded and affected staff may skip work, I got worried.
You see, our family lives in a flood-prone area in Rizal – exactly where the storm hit the hardest.
There was once a TV ad which said “Umihi lang ng sabay-sabay ang tatlong aso, baha na agad dito! (If three dogs were to pee simultaneously, our street will get flooded!)” Well that TV ad was shot about two street corners from our place. Yup, we might as well invest in 4x4s, jet skis and speed boats or at least rubber boats and life preservers.
Kidding aside, when it did rain continuously, we would just watch the café au lait water rise on our street and busy ourselves with other stuff until the floods subside. Afterwards you’d see our neighbors go out of their houses to start the clean up process yet again.
Being on the other side of the Equator for a good 10 weeks now and with the next dust storm coming our way that evening, I sent text messages to my family back home to check up on them. No reply.
I tried calling all four mobile phones and our home phone number. No answer except for the recording which said that the number cannot be reached.
I called up my friends from nearby towns and I still got no answer. This was not good.
I called up my aunt/godmother – my Ninang - who lives a good hundred kilometers or so away from my family to check whether they heard anything from my mom or my siblings. Ninang said the last thing she heard from my sister on Saturday midday was that knee-deep flood water had entered our home and that there was something wrong with our garage, like it was about to break away or something.
Hmmm… knee deep, eh? With our family being taller than average and with our garage a good few feet higher that street level, I estimated that the flood on our street was no less than five feet deep. The flood rarely went up that high. It rarely entered our house, if at all.
Ondoy was not your average typhoon. It was worse than typhoon ‘Milenio’ which hit the Philippines or typhoon ‘Katrina’ which hit New Orleans a few years back.
I spent the next couple of hours trying to watch the game and vacuuming my room to take my mind off things. Earlier that afternoon, I forgot about the dust storm for a bit and left the windows open AFTER I vacuumed the room. *head-desk*
After the Broncos got pounded by the Storm (how ironic could it get?), I called Ninang again for updates. She said the last thing she heard was that the water in the house had subsided and they’ve got no place to sleep (probably from the wet beds), but that was about an hour ago. Ninang had not heard from them since then and it still continued to rain. I then called up one of my old neighbors, whose parents still live near our place, to ask if she got word from her folks. We talked for a bit but she had no update as well.
That was about the time I went online. I looked up what’s happening through Facebook and Twitter and also sent a few shout outs to friends and family. I jot down all emergency hotlines and reposted them for further dissemination. I didn’t receive any reply from my sister who was almost always online.
I went to sleep tired, stressed and with no credits left on my mobile.
Sunday, 27th September
I spent the morning milling about, reading a few passages or so and writing down a few words for one of four 3000+ word essays due in a couple of weeks. (I believe I put in a lame 300 words.) Before lunchtime, I hauled myself out of the house to buy credits for my mobile. I had one of those ‘budget’ Hokkien noodles at the mall and went on to buy some phone load. After that, I went milling about at the mall, at first with some interest in actually buying something I needed, but after a good half hour or so, I was just trying to find my way out of that place. Read: I got lost in the friggin’ mall.
When I finally did get out of the mall and was on the bus stop waiting for the ride home, a bus going to the other mall arrived. Lo and behold! I got on that bus and went to the other mall.
I went home that afternoon with a new hat and a cute pair of pants. Retail therapy – no surprise there…
I checked Facebook again, this time on my mobile phone for updates. Still no news on my family, I contacted a handful of old friends and old classmates who could or would know someone who could extend help to my family. I got a glimmer of hope when my classmate said that her brother-in-law was part of the volunteer rescuers and would try to get them to go check up on Mom.
I went to sleep a bit itchy from the dust, disappointed for the Broncos but with some hope that my family would be well soon.
Monday, 28th September
I checked Facebook on my mobile as soon as I got up. I found no reply from my classmate. It was then that I sent out a message again to more friends to ask for help. I even got a call from my cousin in Canada asking whether I’ve heard anything from Mom. By midday, my old classmate said that roads to our subdivision are passable and clear BUT her brother-in-law could not go to our place because the roads leading to our subdivision was neck-deep in flood water. Not good.
I tried calling up the emergency numbers I collected over the weekend and got through one particular number, which led me to another number that I thought was the National Disaster Coordinating Council. It turned out to be some kind of radio station and I soon found myself broadcasting my plea on air. They got my phone numbers and my Ninang’s off air afterwards but I haven’t received any updates from them. I also sent out their names on a missing person hotline for our area just to be sure.
I did receive a reply from one of my former office mates asking for the phone numbers of my family members. Of course, I gave it to them – each of my family’s mobile phones, my mobile numbers and that of my Ninang’s. At that time, my mobile credit was again tipping the wrong side of the scale and I knew I could not keep up this mobile Facebook updates much longer.
Tonight, I sent text messages again to friends and family back home. This time, one of my old neighbors replied. She had mostly good news. She said they went to our subdivision early that morning to have a look. According to her, the flood was almost one meter high on their street (their street was a bit higher than ours.). She also said that my family was ok and that there was no casualty in our area… except for our gate which was totaled. As always, there was mud all over the streets, this time it was at least one foot deep.
I reckon there was still no electricity otherwise my family would’ve contacted us by now. At least they’re safe. I hope I could say the same for some my friends. I can sleep a bit better now… until the next storm hits Metro Manila within the next three days.
