Monsoon Flood

Several days had passed since the monsoon rain incident in Metro Manila. Roads are impassible, houses that have never experienced flood was flooded, thousands of families fled to evacuation centers with empty stomached, around 65 people died at the height of the heavy downpour.

Monday, we grabbed a dinner at KFC. I asked Marko to sleepover in our house because of heavy rain. I’m afraid of his safety since he has to drive to Laguna. Our mom woke us up quarter to 5 in the morning last Tuesday, August 7. I can sense panic in her voice when she advised my brother and marko to place the car in an elevated area in a nearby mall. The flood had already reached our garage. We kept calm and optimistic. We believed that we won’t be encountering an Ondoy part II but we still did some precautions. We placed our clothes and other belongings inside the garbage bags which we later placed on top of our cabinets. I was carrying all other appliances lifting it on high cabinets (I guess our adrenaline rush worked for us).

It was 11am when we left our house. A close family friend was kind enough to lend us their vacant apartment where we temporarily took shelter. The Ondoy experienced taught us great lesson during this kind of calamity; we were more prepared and organized. We made sure that we are able to pack some foods and clean clothes to wear. My tita also managed to cook some dishes good for 2 days in case we will be stranded which really did happened to us.

The house was not comfortable since it is being renovated, but it was more than enough to shelter us from the heavy downpour of rain, flood and thunderstorms. Of course, we are not expecting a comfy bed with matching mattress and pillows.

The rain lasted for 3 days. The flood which reached waist level finally subsided on the third day. We were thankful that it was not as drastic as Ondoy when the flood reached around 8 ft. and worst the mud devastated all our belongings. We are happy that every family member is safe.

These calamities teaches as life lesson firstly, don’t cling too much on worldly possessions it can be swiped away right before your eyes. Most importantly, it taught me the importance of the family that despite of such circumstances you need to have each others back.