Habagat - a seemingly natural occurrence reared its ugly head early this month and left several provinces, Rizal included, submerged in water for days. Some areas in the metro were under flood waters for around 2 weeks. According to Pag-Asa and other government agencies monitoring Habagat's progress (of destruction), the rains were more than Ondoy's and that is a LOT. The only difference is that Ondoy was faster, in 6 hours or so, a lot of areas were already flooded. With Habagat, the rain came in steady streams, giving people, including us, more time to prepare and evacuate. However, that still doesn't make things any better. Our house was submerged in waist deep waters before lunch time of August 7 and on the next day, waters were already neck deep.
On September 27, it will be exactly 3 years after Ondoy ravaged the country. Three years after I saw and experienced a helplessness and a shattering heartbreak like no other: seeing your own home, with everything in it: all your memories, everything you worked for, submerged underwater and afterwards reduced to a mud pit. All I can do during that time was just to watch and wait and pick up the pieces left after Ondoy. The experience of swimming out of our house and towing my parents to safety and seeing the expression on their faces the first time they saw our house and everything in it literally caked in mud after the typhoon will forever be etched in my mind. Things like that leave scars, and I am no exception. I tried to write about Ondoy a few times and I cannot get past a paragraph without breaking down in tears. Until now, I cannot bear to recall that memory in full and write about it.
Habagat, though a milder version of Ondoy, was still heart wrenching, though we were more prepared this time and flood waters were not that high compared to Ondoy. Our area was submerged in neck deep waters, while inside the house, it was waist deep. We managed to save a majority of our stuff and thankfully, the only damage was on the walls and on most wooden fixtures. All the rest are okay. The next step now for me is to save up for a second floor, and I guess at this point, that needs to be prioritized.
dining room
living room
another view of the dining room
front door
kitchen with floating refs
outside our gates
My major worry that time were my dogs. We made a makeshift shelter for them before we evacuated to our neighbor's house next door, but when the rains became stronger on the second night, their shelter toppled. When I saw Bambi, one of my dogs lodged in between our fence grills, I panicked. I was thankful she was okay, but I cannot find my other dog, Queenie. Queenie is a survivor, she survived Ondoy by squeezing herself on top of the aircon. I was so scared while I was looking for her in chest deep waters that I was crying. When I heard a whimper, I went as fast as I could to the back of the house, mindless of floating debris and other what-nots. She was standing on top of a pile of floating wood, a really smart move. She swam to the back of the house where she was saved the first time a flood this magnitude hit us. I got her and she won't let go. Mama and I made a sturdier shelter for them, but Queenie was scared, she won't let me out of her sight. It took a while before she calmed down. But thankfully, both of them are fine.
Just to give you an idea how high the flood was, here is another shot of Queenie and Bambi post Habagat:
We just finished cleaning (and drying) the house and most of our stuff just last weekend. Though there were two long weekends this month, I wasn't able to enjoy it since we were occupied with the house. Now that that's done, we can relax the next weekend and start fixing things up and planning what we have to do next.
I am a bit of a control freak and when things get out of hand and there is absolutely no way for me to turn things around and a feeling of helplessness sets in, I start to crumble in silence. That is one thing I have to work on.
But one thing is for sure, my family is a survivor. And it is true what everyone was saying during that whole ordeal, that the Filipino spirit is waterproof :). Resiliency is a national character and through it all we can still manage to find something to smile about and be thankful for. Me, I am thankful that my family is safe and that my dogs are well. I am thankful for the family that took us in and for everyone who sent me messages of support. For family, friends and co-workers who prayed for us, called or posted through FB and Twitter and sent messages through SMS; who helped us clean the house, for sending us supplies to help us start over since most of our food and house supplies were out, I cannot thank all of you enough. For JB, who never fails to lend a helping hand to their people. I am proud to be a part of the JB family, thank you very much for looking after us. Lastly, for the Man Upstairs, thank you for watching over us all during this whole ordeal.
I know there is a lesson here somewhere, and I would come to terms with it sooner or later, but for now, I think my family (again), needs to pick up the pieces, heal and move on. Though the wounds are not as deep as before, re-opened wounds still need time to heal.
