28 September 2009

Ondoy oy oy!

How are you? I do hope that you're okay.

I thank God that my loved ones are safe...save for an uncle and his family whom we've last had communication with last Friday night. They live in the Lamuan area (in Marikina) and they were staying in the 2nd floor of their house since the first floor was also flooded. They only had raw spaghetti noodles to eat and some milk for my cousins (who are around 7 and 8 yrs. old and one of them celebrated his birthday last Saturday pa talaga). Up to now, we don't have any news about them...I really pray that they're okay.

We were also in Marikina last weekend. Saturday morning we were on our way to Marikina from Sta. Rosa. We left around 7am and dropped by Concepcion Market pa because mama had to do buy stuff. We left around 8am and were on our way home (to SSS Village), we were in a hurry because SSS gets flooded when heavy rain pours. As expected, several streets were already flooded so we decided to wait it out by the church (which is in an elevated area). We saw the water reach up to waist level.

Around 11:30 we decided to look for some place to eat. We saw Cafe Feliz and had lunch there and decided to continue waiting for the rain to stop and the flood to subside. By this time, electricity was already cut off. We reached home around 4pm when the rain subsided and flood water dropped to about the level of the sidewalk. We saw some cars wade through the rain so we decided to follow. It was quite difficult because there were a lot of debris on the street.

Worst thing that happened to us was the blackout. Just the incovenience of having a blackout. Phone lines were also down. Thank God water supply wasn't stopped. We are very thankful given the situation of other parts of Marikina, Pasig, and Rizal province, we were very blessed.

Oh, and A fell into a manhole (well, his left leg). He had to get anti-tetanus shots last night. We went to Concepcion to have him checked but ended up going home ulit kasi hindi ma-contact ang HMOs. We didn't have any cash either (well we had about P400 but it wasn't enough to get the shots), ATMs were all offline. In the grocery, there were a lot of people buying basic supplies like water, food, clothes, slippers. Some of them had no homes to go to. Grabe talaga.

The next morning, my parents were on the 6:30am flight from Davao so we had to go the airport. We went out at 7am, went around Marikina for an hour then decided to go back because roads were still not passable. Thank God for my BIL and SIL who offered to meet my parents for us. We were only able to go out of Marikina at 2PM but we still had to look for a passable route. The roads were all muddy, there were vehicles left on the street some that were all muddy inside. SM Marikina's carpark was covered in mud and the Marikina river was still churning out muddy water.

We were back home in Sta. Rosa around past 5pm. Thank God that in our area, there was no flooding that happened.

Nakakatakot ung experience. I feel sad for those who lost their homes, who were stranded on their rooftops with no food nor water, especially those who had babies, kids and elderly persons with them. It was really a tough day for the Philippines. But it should also serve as a wake up call for everyone to always be prepared for the worst.

I really do hope that we all learned a lesson from this experience. A lesson that we do not forget with the passing of time sana.

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