I Survived Typhoon Ondoy!

Typhoon "Ondoy" have already left the country but the damaged it did was terrible. Even I was'nt so fortunate to escape it's wrath. I was'nt online for one week because our house got flooded and so as the Internet Shop where I go everyday to update my blog. At least now, I'm back in blogging and I'm writing to share you my experience with Typhoon Ondoy.

It was work as usual last Saturday when Ondoy drenched the entire Metro Manila with it's heavy rains. Every Saturday me and the company driver strolls different auto supply stores in some part of Quezon City, Caloocan, Manila and Valenzuela to collect paychecks. It was around 10am when the heavy rains started pouring the streets and caused floods. We were still able to reach Valenzuela because there was still no floods during that time but as of 12pm on our way to Letre, the road was not passable anymore due to floods caused by the non-stop raining, that's when we decided to just go back to office and cancell the collection. On our way to the office, we passed by Jose Abad Santos Ave. and the flood was knee deep. When we reached the office, the management declared cancellation of work due to the typhoon, that was around 1:30pm, also at that time I recieved a text message from my younger sister saying that the flood have already reached the 2nd floor of our house so I hurriedly went.

Eventhough I was worried and shocked about the news I recieved I was still not able to go home because of the flood so I stayed for a couple of hours inside Tutuban Centermall but I continued to communicate to my sister through my cellphone and I told her to update me of what's happening to them. Around 3:30pm, my sister texted me again saying that the water is rising quickly and it reached 3rd floor so they evacuated to the 4th floor which is the last place they can go. My sister seemed to be panicking so I went to a fire station to ask for help, they gave me a phone # and asked me the exact location of our house for a posible rescue, but thanks to them no one came into our aide. That's when I decided to find a transportation to take me home and I was fortunate to find a jeepney bound to Blumentritt, but it just stopped at Tayuman Rizal Ave. because Blumentritt is flooded too. In Tayuman I went inside the Espiritu Santo Church and stayed there for an hour and pray for the safety of my family, then I walked from tayuman to Blumentritt eventhough the flood was gutter deep. There I found a tricycle offering a ride worth 30 per person, I ride without second thought just to make it home. The trike stopped at the Chinese General Hospital and in there I took a trike again to reach A. Bonifacio Market for 30 pesos again. And in there a truck offered a rideupto Sto. Domingo, during that time I was in the truck, my sister texted me again and said that the flood is already going down and the rain has stopped, during that time I said thanks to the Lord because He answered my prayers and I got relaxed a bit.

When I got to Sto. Domingo cor Araneta, exactly at Jollibee, a lot of people were stranded, Jollibee eve ran out of food due to the number of people who bought to reserve food in case they stay there for more hours. I saw Araneta cor. Del Monte and I was shocked, the water is like a river, the SaveMore Supermarket got sunked, you can only see the roof, and the Sergio Osmena Sr. High School got sunked upto the 2nd floor and that was the first time that it happened, and in Del Monte, a lot of vehicles got sunked too, according to those who saw what happened, there was a traffic build up around 10am and due to the fast rising flood, the drivers had no option but to abandon their cars and trucks and save themselves.

I spotted my brother and he too was stranded. When the water subsided upto waist deep a lot of people crossed even women in business attire crossed just to get home. It was already 3am when the flood went down to gutter deep and me and my brother finally decided to cross and go home. When we got home everything is a mess, many people from our place were not able to save anything except the clothes they were wearing, according to them the water rised so quickly that they did'nt have any opportunity to save anything, that's when I found my mama and my sister, we tried to find food but nothing is available during that time so they just went home but I did'nt went home with them because it was dark to enter our place, I waited for the sun to rise and just slept with the other people in the street gutter.

Today we are trying to move on, picking up the things that we were able to save and throwing away the things that got sunked into the flood including our tv set that they let being sunked because it was too heavy to be lifted to the 3rd floor. I want to get frustrated because of what happened to us, but I also have to accept that this is how life goes, God is taking away something from you to make you strong, I'm just very thankful to God that we survived the flood, we may have lost some of our valueable but al least we are still alive. I will never forget this experience, I will carry this forever and tell it to my sons and grandsons. For now, it's the time of rebuilding and moving on.