Never Thought

September 26 was supposed to be normal Saturday. I opted to stay in my brother’s house in Filinvest Homes in Marcos Hiway because: (1) I had to study for a final exam to the short course I’m taking in UP ITTC and (2) My sister took the car and reported for duty in a conference in SMX. I just planned my boring day of endless reading and note taking and I figured I can always hitch a ride with my brother and sister-in-law the moment they had to go up to Antipolo.

I never thought I could reach our home three days later.

Everyone knows the story. Typhoon Ondoy, although projeted to only be a small typhoon, destroyed the Greater Manila Area and other provinces. Unlike Milenyo, Ondoy packed itself with so much rain water that it made rivers out of roads and islands out of houses — big or small.

My brother’s house wasn’t spared. For two days, we took refuge on the second floor while the flood water entered the house. Transferring the car to a higher lot didn’t help at all. It was completely submerged in the flood and we could only watch from afar. For fear of being electrocuted, I switched off our main power. Food was another problem. We only had cooked food to last us a night and none of us didn’t dare to go downstairs and scavenge for food — not until we’re sure that the water will not rise again. Marooned in our brother’s home. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

What made me even more nervous was the fact that my whole family were separated the whole duration of the storm. Four little groups with little to no means for communication since the ladlines are dead and so are cellphone signals. Through sporadic text messages, I learned that my parents were stranded from Saturday till Sunday afternoon on a nearby mall. My sister had to stay on her officemate’s dorm and didn’t come home till Monday afternoon. The house in Antipolo was spared but the neighborhood also had flood water problems.

The days after the storm were no walk in the park either. Clean-up, repairs, search and rescue operations, relief operations, friend roll call, reporting back to work, opportunistic politicians, blamming games — not to mention the self-inflicted paranoia that rendered me paralyzed even with just a slight rain shower. Good thing we can still see the silver lining — bayanihan, out pouring donations, volunteerism, stories of bravery. These are new blog posts all together. I could even make a book out of it. But now is not the time. All I could think of is how we can all bounce back and fast.

And now another storm threatens the country with much more danger than Ondoy. Pepeng is now named a supertyphoon and experts say it could even cause more damage to the country. This time will be different. This time, we’re (semi)prepared. I took a whole day leave so that we can do the final clean-up and prepare my brother’s house for Pepeng and retreat to our home in Antipolo. It’s tough to leave my work hanging but I don’t want to be separated with my family again. I bought food and supplies that could hopefully last us until the storm ends. The whole family is staying in the mothership — cars parked safely in the garage. This time, we’re ready.

Then again, who would have thought two storms will hit the country in such a short time. Oh dear Lord, please save us from another devastation.

=========

UPDATE (October 3, morning): News say Pepeng changed its course and it will no longer affect Southern Luzon. I just hope that Northern Luzon will not experience too much damage.

UPDATE (October 4): Greater Manila Area is spared. Pepeng damaged Northern Luzon — killing 15 when it left. When will things go back to “normal”?

UPDATE (October 10): Because of another storm Pepeng u-turned to Ilocos. Death toll is above 150 now.