I haven’t been able to add a new post in two weeks. The past couple of weeks have passed like a blur. Our house got flooded last September 26 due to Typhoon Ondoy. The extent of the devastation caused by this typhoon, and the one after it (Pepeng), is such that almost everyone I’ve spoken with since then has either been directly affected, or knows somebody (friend or relative) who was affected too. Much has been written about the typhoons and their devastating effects in the news and on the internet. I thought I would share my family’s Typhoon Ondoy story here as well.

The Flood

Sep 26 (Saturday). 
09:30AM  

My family (mom, sister, and myself) were at home. The day had started quite rainy, but the rain just kept   pouring down non-stop. We were glad we were all together at home and thinking how nice it would be to take a long nap with the cool weather. Unknown to us, it had already started to flood in our subdivision. It was already so bad that it was impossible for cars to get in and out of our village.

11:30AM  

We followed the news on TV and realized how bad the flooding was all around Metro Manila. We braved the rains and went outside with a big umbrella and saw that our street was already flooded. The flood was already 3 houses down from us. It was a shock. We knew that our village was prone to flooding, but even during Typhoon Millenyo the flood reached only the end of our street. Our house had never been flooded. Our house is situated near the other end of the street which is on higher ground. Floodwaters at the other end were already about 5 feet deep. I could see cars floating and bobbing around like children’s toys in a bath tub.

1:45PM  

The electricity went out. We started to realize that things were more serious than we thought. We went out and saw that the flood was only 1 house down from us. In spite of the heavy rain, we each put on a jacket, got an umbrella, and drove our cars to the highest street we could find within the village. We left the two cars on that street, and rode back to our house in the last car and parked it inside a neighbor’s garage. Their garage sloped up and they were kind enough to offer us the use of their parking space. When we returned to our house the flood was already at our garden.

2:00PM  

We stood in disbelief in our garage and watched the floodwaters quickly coming inside. It only took seconds. I will never forget the sight of cockroaches of all shapes and sizes crawling out of the holes on the ground and crawling up our garage walls to higher ground as the floodwaters moved closer towards our house. (Yuck! That’s an image I’ll remember for a long time to come.). We realized the flood could actually get inside our house. We went inside and turned off the main switch in our fusebox.

-:–PM  (lost track of time)

We realized we only had a few minutes to save our belongings and we had to get out of the house ASAP. I told my mom and sister to start putting their important things as high up in the shelves as they can. Our house is a bungalow, so we didn’t have the option of moving furniture and appliances to the second floor. I started tossing my cameras, chargers, laptop, wedding planning-related things, and other important papers into the highest level shelves I could find in my closet. At this point, the grayish floodwater started coming inside the house. I could see it pooling onto our marble floor. The drains in our kitchen and bathrooms started to overflow as well onto the wooden parquet floor of our rooms.

My sister and I each prepared a waterproof backpack containing our wallet and cash, cellphones, a change of clothes, some crackers, and water. Outside I could hear my mom shouting that our dog Muffie was still in his cage. She got the dog out, put him on a tabletop, and proceeded to save what she could of the things from the living room area and kitchen. I helped her put some electric fans on the tables. (Little did I realize at the time how pointless that would be as the flood would cause the tables to float and the fans would fall into the flood water.)

Read Part 2 of this story: We Survived the Flood! (My Typhoon Ondoy Story Part 2)