Happy Birthday: The Revenge of Nature

Last September 28 was my “ty-fourth” birthday!  It was also the aftermath of typhoon “Ondoy”!  I have never been so scared in my entire life. 

Sept 26, 2009: I remember my supervisor from work texting me at around 9 am asking me how was Malabon.  I was amused and touched at the same time, but there was no floods yet so I said: “It’s ok here, lots of rain, but no floods.  See you at work later!” 

 FAMOUS LAST WORDS!  After about 12 pm I noticed flood waters creeping in past our yard.  Being from Malabon, I’m used to floods but it didn’t bother me much.  after an hour it was just above the first steps of our house.  Still I didn’t mind it.  my brother texted me around 1 pm. He said that Kamagong in Makati  is already flooded and they are already stranded in the 2nd floor of their house.  That was the first time during that day that, Kamagong was only a few blocks a way from my office.  I hurriedly sent messages to my supervisor and manager.  Office was already flooded from the outside, but people are stranded already.  Damn!   I watched the waters creeping in and still did not notice anything to alarmed with, but then my manager advised me to not go to work anymore, as everywhere was flooded!  Bless her! I immediately inform my wife. 

Still nothing out of the ordinary happened on that day

Sept. 27, 2009:  My wife woke me up and inform me that the floods are about to enter our house.  I hurriedly went out and wade in waist deep flood waters and asked help from our neighbors.  What I saw was devastating, All houses on our streets are already flooded, we were the last house to get hit!  2 of my neighbors went inside with me, and we went ahead and lifted our refrigerator to the 2nd floor of my home.  When they left I struggled to unhook my mini component and took it to high ground.  My 2 housekeepers, helped me lift the 2 sofas in the living room to the 2nd floor as well.  Then we wait…….

Less than an hour the waters started coming in.  In my 5 years of living in Malabon, I have never saw floods this huge!  The weirdest thing about it, my wife was nonchalant about it.  Maybe because she’s really the one from Malabon, she was born there.  While I was just a transplant.  Still we waited.  The floods didn’t recede until the night of the 28th of September.

September 28. 2009:  Happy Birthday! or was it?  House was still flooded.  But still I was thankful.  What I saw on television made me cry, and I can’t help but think how lucky my family and I were.  We only got flooded.  While others in Marikina, Pasig and other parts of the Metro was flooded with not only water, but mud.  I can’t believe the devastation that happened.  

 

 

 I thank God everyday that although it was flooded, electricity wasn’t cut-off in our area, no one was hurt, no one died.  It turned out that I received the greatest gift from God on my birthday……. the safety of all the people I love!