The Great Flood 2009
A scripture in the Bible, in the time of Noah a great flood washed the Earth of it's existence. Only few have survived that tragedy. Now, the year is 2009 time of modernization, industrial revolution, climate change, global warming and death. The date to remember is September 26, 2009 where typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines and where it created chaos.
Morning of September 25,2009, the rain was pouring like water pouring on an endless pail. Most part of the City of Manila is already flooded up to the knee but still possible for the motorist to travel. The day was dark, gloomy and wet, sometimes the sun shines and waves hello but most of the time it was the rain that ruled the sky. The Storm signal in Manila was only raised to One, meaning the storm isn't that strong and the highest storm signal given to the other provinces was only up to Two. The rain continued to pour up until the next morning, September 26,2009 the news on tv was all about the flooded streets and houses, not like before it was all about the candidates for the up coming 2010 Elections. This time the flooded streets where really flooded no any huge vehicle can pass only boats have the passes to cross the streets. By early noon around 11am, news flash on tv was showing streets with flood up to the hips, waist and some way above a 6 foot tall man. No cars, jeepneys or trucks can be seen on the streets only endless flow of water. But from where I am, all's well, no flood all clean and dry.
Noon, the rain's still pouring and now the water in the river in our backyard's starting to rise. Still me and my mom at that time is still calm, we even manage to eat lunch, but ten minutes later the flood's showing up.. inch by inch it rises.. my mom and i starts to put things up the higher ground and some of our neighbors already left their houses eventhough the flood's only up to the knee. We're not that nervous cause we had a taste of flood in our house for years, each year flood enter our home some time between june to september, the highest water level that the flood reached was up only to my waist (and I'm 5'7'') so no biggie on this one cause we expect that it would only be like up to the knee or thigh. My mom and i still put things up big or small, we ask some of my cousins to help us with the big heavy stuffs and then a little over 5 minutes have passed most of our stuffs are still laying on the ground the flood reaches my thigh and my room which is 2 stair steps (knee high) higher than our living room is already flooded half way to the knee, we hasten up but the flood's faster than us, no can do the flood's rising in the blink of an eye. The food was up to my waist, we can't put anything up anymore cause the water level's too high so i grab what i can and we head straight to our 2nd floor.
We're still lucky cause we have a 2nd floor some of our neighbor fled cause their houses are bungalow. As the rain pours, the flood rises there's nothing we can do so we just let all our appliances, furnitures have a little swim in the flood. Feeling hopeless and worried, add to that there's no electricity, we watch the flood rise and ate up everything that's left downstairs.
6pm, there's pitch black darkness everywhere and the flood's rising it looks like there's no stopping but the rain had stopped. We ate dinner and try to fall asleep but we can, we're worried cause my dad went to work that morning and on his way home didn't manage to pull through the flood, luckily he had an old friend nearby where he got stranded so he stayed the night there.
10pm, the flood is still rising and this time we're really, really, really worried cause there's only 3 step left before the flood reaches our 2nd floor and if that happens we're stuck here and no rescue's gonna come. I feel very down and scared at that time I'm at the bridge of panic, and it's like someone tapped my shoulder i saw the bible, it was soaked, so i try to put paper underneath each pages so that it wont stick to each other, as i dry it i read some of the scriptures written there and somehow it ease my worries and calms me down. After i finish the Bible I prayed, alot until i fall asleep, i didn't mind the flood anymore because i felt exhausted, worried and there's war inside my head on what's gonna happen to us if this and that happen.. so i let it all out and pray.
2am, there's light it was bright i thought that electricity has returned but i was wrong there's fire in one of our neighbor's! My mom and i were scared luckily the fire was put out by the owner and were safe...
September 27, 2009
5am, my mom didn't sleep last night until morning, the flood starts to fade, 2 steps already showed up.. but still it's high. I already gain strength and positivity, to release some stress i take my camera and took snapshots of what the storm has left. I didn't know if i'm going to feel remarkably amazed by the power of nature or i'm going to take suicide! It's a mixture of emotions, i can't explain.. I was amazed on how a storm can swept everything you try to put up for years in one blast, I feel like taking a suicide cause after this what's next? where do we start? up to what extent is the damage of that storm to our property? are we still gonna pull through this? or just left everything behind? how do we make a start?.. this are the thoughts running to my head. But we're still thankful because we're alive and that were safe and have a full stomach.
2pm, my dad's home!!!! Yey!!! he's safe but the flood is still up to his waist (he's 5'11'') and some of our neighbors whose house were already dry and flood has left, started cleaning picking up what's left and can still be refurbished or recycled. And us? well still staring at the flood and waiting for it to leave our humble home..
Posted by phalaenopsis at 10:23 AM | Gime ur 2 cents worth