AS SEEN ON TV
My date with disaster
It was a typical Saturday morning for me except that I had to cancel my usual weekend morning bonding with my son Gelo because it was drizzling. Instead we decided to bond at home watching TV.
When the drizzles became a downpour, we heard neighbors yelling for help. From the bedroom window, we could see raging waters inundating the streets of Lazaro Soriano Homes in Quezon City where we live. Neighbors were frantically taking their belongings and cars out of the garages to move them to higher ground. Many of them were stuck in floodwaters on their way to supposed, safety. I didn’t bother to take our car out, confident that my garage was a little elevated. Besides it never really flooded in our area, not in the last 7 years that we’ve lived there.
By noon the creek near our place burst forth, and the entire village was flooded for the first time. Neighbors caught in the middle of evacuation were carried away by strong water currents. Murky waters in our garage was now waist deep. Forget the car. It was now time to move up the second floor where it’s safer. This required quick thinking (courtesy of my wife who directed the entire operation), and moving all essential appliances and furniture from the first floor to the second floor was our priority. In half an hour me and our “robust and ever dependable” yaya were able to clear the first floor, bringing to safety everything that mattered. Even the piano.
By the time we lifted the fridge, the waters were already gushing into the sala. My family and 2 other friends (refugees) who couldn’t make it home had to move up. We were stuck in the second floor from noon till night, living on just candies and very little water. While we were trapped for 10 hours, we never realized the extent of the destruction until the waters subsided. Cars and SUV’s in shambles, concrete fences torn down, furniture washed out by floods and strewn all over our streets as well as pets, both dead and shaken. A neighbor tells me about a dead body inside one of the houses, a 75-year old helper who failed to leave. Two more unidentified bodies were found near Glory Supermart, blocks from where we lived. Neither the police nor barangay rescuers could come. They don’t have rescue equipment anyway. Not even the funeral parlor could collect the remains of the dead house help because all roads leading to our place were blocked by floods.
And Quezon City is not hardest hit by the floods brought about by Typhoon Ondoy, which took the country’s capital “by storm” on that fateful morning of September 26. Marikina and Rizal, both low-lying were under water until Sunday. Residents of posh subdivisions awaited rescue from the roofs of their houses. Provident Village gave the face to the tragedy where hundreds spent the night on their roofs, including actress Cristine Reyes. In other parts of the metro, shanties were washed off and scores were drenched as schools, gymnasiums and barangay halls were also inundated. Condominium dwellers moved to the higher floors as floodwaters submerged their basement, parking and first floors. Food and water were as scarce as rescue in many flooded areas in Caloocan, Manila, many parts of Quezon City (including our area which we thought to be invulnerable), Pasig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati. It’s practically the entire metro!
If it was not a good day to be trapped in one’s home, the streets and major thoroughfares were not the safest places either but many commuters and motorists had no choice. Some slept inside cars while traffic was not moving, a wise decision as stalled and overturned vehicles blocked the roads anyway. It was even pointless to leave the engines on. Thousands of commuters also sought refuge inside buses, jeeps and MRT stations and spent the night waiting for trains.
Passengers were also stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airports 1, 2 and 3 as planes were grounded due to poor visibility. Hotels, stores, markets and restaurants had been damaged. The very few ones that were not flooded were closed. Even the major malls were deserted and ATM’s were most often than not, offline. Desperation was in the air.
Rescue teams were swamped with calls for help. The death toll was already in the hundreds as of Sunday morning. The figures were largely understated as many areas remain isolated and there was no way of finding out the extent of damage to property or loss of lives until the waters subside. Many relied on local government rescue but these were often futile. More lives were lost when residents attempted to rescue family and loved ones one their own.
I still consider myself lucky. Except for a muddy first floor and a few busted sockets, we’re okay. I may have to haggle with insurance to shoulder the repairs of a damaged car but that’s also alright. The experience of others is far more unimaginable. While I’m writing this, rescue operations continue in Marikina and Rizal where the trapped are dying of hypothermia.
The devastation is close to those depicted in “doomsday” movies where there’s just utter chaos. People just watch, helpless as lives and property are consumed by destructive forces of nature. Many say Ondoy is reminiscent of Typhoon Frank in Iloilo. From that experience,Ilonggos drew a common lesson that government cannot cope with a catastrophe of such proportion. From a Metro Manila stand point, Ondoy was a pandora’s box of unmet expectations. One would think that both private and public sector resources in the nation’s capital can support rescue? Not today, and perhaps not even in the near future.
When disaster strikes in this country whether one is stuck in Ayala Avenue in Makati or in a remote sitio in Lambunao, Iloilo, he’s pretty much on his own!