Cerebral Combustion
A moment of mourning, reckoning and awakening
It could have been anyone. It could have been my child or my husband, or any of my family members. By the way it had taken us all like a quiet warrior taking advantage of the enemies' stillness; lives are lost like a preordained fate nobody was ever prepared for. But we are fortunate. My family and I are safe. Yet after the havoc, we are never the same again.
In a dream from an afternoon nap, I was floating in a muddy water with snakes, huge ones, but seemingly harmless. After an abrupt disruption of aghast shouting, I woke up and the danger was imminently waiting to take us over. From the window, there I saw the water rapidly rising. With our neighbors already out in the streets, horror swept in as we looked at each other in disbelief as our area is never been prone to flooding even when the water is high in the national highway where intolerable flooding can occur during super typhoons. For a moment we stood there, unable to figure out what to do but knowing at once that this will be a tragedy to many who are more prone to the ominous havoc of flooding.
In what seemed like only minutes, our area was filled with dark, filthy, and precarious water. Despite the strong current, we managed to take vigorous steps with the water almost to our waist towards our store a few meters away and save what we could. Many were saving their belongings too, but sadly they only have a little except for their precious children because these are people who squat along the road and their shabby houses can give in anytime soon. It was a scene I only remember seeing in television but there I was in the middle of it, with people in tears, frightened for what might happen.
We brought three children as we went back to our house, but even our house was filled with knee deep water so we transferred next door to my aunt's after we secured our valuable properties to safety. We were able to rest there but not without the anxiety and panic that the water may possibly rise soon.
In that night while the typhoon is ravaging the entire city, we were able to eat, sleep, laugh and manage to slip some sense of humor to our situation. In other parts of the city and our nearby villages many are literally fighting for their lives and for their families. How can one appear to survive with rooftops as the only means of shelter of terror stricken families, with hungry and freezing infants, children, and elders under a strong rain and unfathomable water underneath? Added to that is the inadequate number of rescuers and equipment that could have helped in so many ways in a time of a calamity like this. The flood swept the city fast and without warning so there was very little anybody can do but hold on to dear life. Listening to the news was more than just devastating, it was extremely mournful and heartbreaking.
Why will you not, when infants are being swept away in the flood? Will your heart not be engulfed with sorrow when you hear someone being a witness at how a whole family was drowning helplessly by the unmerciful current of water; or of a sight of a father screaming in vehement denial after he saw his son lifeless for trying to save somebody's life? These are only but a few stories we've heard in the radio while we are cradled in our comfortable refuge.
At the moment, lives are hardly coping up after the two day typhoon catastrophe. We drove around and saw the result of the anger of nature that befell us all. The wreckages are unpleasant and almost unimaginable. Houses and properties swamped all over in thick mud and people out in the streets with nothing but belongings and possessions drenched in a quagmire of filthy grime of earth. The water has subsided, some areas doesn't look like a huge body of swamp anymore. The damage has been done, and one that is not too easy to forget. Many lives are lost and are still missing. Who knows where they might be? But altogether, we must have learned something from this; something that may save us all should anything like this happen again. This day is a moment of mourning -- a moment too, for reckoning and awakening. For those of us who lived, may we help one another and pray for those who perished. And most of all change, befriend our mother earth, not only for ourselves but for our children.