Typhoon Ondoy: Faith, Love and Survival

I didn't know at first whether I can write something about a tragedy that my family has gone through. Typing the first few words of this blog was a struggle, a struggle to be objective despite the memories of the ordeal I and my family went through during the wrath of typhoon Ondoy.

Typhoon Ondoy wasn't a strong typhoon. In fact, most people I talked to didn't even know it would hit Metro Manila, and hit it hard. It was just an ordinary typhoon, the kind which most people, including myself would just sleep off and won't even allow to alter the schedule of activities we have lined up for the day.

I was supposed to be on my way to Caleruega, Batangas to attend a two-day weekend company seminar, but decided not to participate as my wife, who had just undergone an operation to remove a cystic mass on her right ovary, was to visit her doctor for her follow-up check up last September 26.

I was supposed to run in the morning of September 26. I was preparing for the Asian Duathlon Championships in Subic to be held on November 15. With non-stop rains from the Friday night continuing on til Saturday morning, I was left with no choice but to ride my bike on a bike trainer and thought I could do brick trainings the following day.

I completed my bike workout around 9:30 a.m. Was about to hit the showers and get ready to leave the house for Medical City for wifey's check-up when I thought I'd better take a look outside and see what the non-stop rains had done to our village.

Upon opening the gate, I was greeted with calf-deep water on the road, 1/4 of my car tyres were submerged in water already. No worries, I said, as this happened before and water just stayed that high before finally drying up. I went inside and removed my bike shoes and changed my shirt.

Some neighbors informed us that water was rising and I had to move my car to higher ground. When I checked, it indeed rose! Half of my car's tyres were submerged already. I went inside to get my car keys and moved my car to the vacant lot in front of my house which was about 3 feet higher than the street.

I told my wife we wouldn't leave anymore as water was high, and would probably be higher on the streets going out of our subdivision.

At around 11:00 a.m., I was again informed by my neighbors that I needed to elevate my car again. Water already reached half of the rear tyres which meant an increase of about 1 foot from less than an hour earlier. Water also reached our garage, where my wife's car was parked. With the help of some neighbors, we jacked my car a bit to elevate it by about half a foot more. Going back in my house, I also jacked up wifey's car to about half a foot as well.

At around 12 noon, water breached the 1st floor of my house and was rising fast. I immediately carried my LCD TV to the 2nd floor. We are not yet done paying for it.

1:00 p.m. and water was already around 1 foot inside my house. My car was half-submerged already and although we tried to elevate it further, gave up after realizing we couldn't do anything anymore. Driving it to higher grounds outside the subdivision wasn't possible anymore, as putting it at street level would put the flood waters on it window level.

2:00 p.m., water was up to my knees inside my house. At that point I realized it wasn't an ordinary flood. I asked help from the neighbors to help me lift my refrigerator. My "kumpare" Enjie dropped by hoping he could still plug the bathroom bell-traps in our 1st floor to avoid water from seeping out, he was too late. I asked him to turn off my swith breaker instead as the outlets were already breached by water.

3:00 p.m., water was leg high inside our house and almost waist deep outside. It was rising fast. I remembered our 2nd floor not having a fire escape. I tried looking for my steel saw and couldn't find it. Went out to borrow one from the neighbor, they couldn't find theirs as well. Went to Enjie's house which was about 5 blocks away to borrow his. On my way back, I was surprised that the water was already belly-button deep. I stand almost 6 feet, it was already too high for people smaller than I am.

I asked my next door neighbor if I could evacuate my family to their house, their house has 3 floors.

3:30 p.m., I started evacuating my family one by one. I had a styrobox I use as a cooler during parties in the house. I put my 5-yr old daughter, Keidy, inside. It floated. Great! I pushed on the styrobox while my eldest, Dani, hang on to my shoulders.

I carried Collete, my 10-yr old, on my shoulders and we made our way through almost chest deep of water to the neighbor's house.

I held on to Carol, my wife, by the waist. She had her wound all taped up just to make sure water wouldn't get inside. With my motherr-in-law behind us, we all made it safely to the neighbor.

I went back to the house and closed the door, then made my way up to the 2nd floor.

Water was still coming out of the faucet and I took advantage and showered.

Inside our bedroom, I could see what has happened to my car:

Only the roof was visible. By this time, water on our streets would be around 6 feet.

At around 5:00 p.m., flood waters inside our house was around 5 feet already, reaching the last two steps leading to the mezzanine.

Then at 7:00 p.m., it reached the 5th to the last step of the stairs going up to the 2nd floor. Water was rising by an average of half a foot every hour.

By 8:30 p.m., water was already at the last 4 steps of my stairs going up the 2nd floor. At this point, I decided to cut the grills of my 2nd floor window to make an emergency escape. Horrible thoughts started going on in my mind. What if water reached the 2nd floor, or even the 3rd floor of the neighbor's house where my family was staying? How could the kids make it through the water? How would they float?

After sawing off the window grills, I gathered all the back packs, styrofoams and beach balls or floaters I could find. I found 4 backpacks but not enough floaters. I remembered seeing beach balls downstairs and immediately changed into swim shorts. I dove into the floodwaters and tried feeling the un-inflated beach balls in the pitch dark water. I found one and a bottle of Sprite, but still, it wasn't enough. I dove again, this time down to the part of the floor where I last saw the bag of beach balls. I found it! Swam my way back to the stairs immediately.

I lost no time inflating the beach ball and cutting half of the styrobox which I put Keidy into, then started inserting these into the back packs thereby making floaters for the kids.

I tested each of the back packs in the water, and damn! it was so cold. I wore the back packs at the front and back trying to see which was the best way it could be worn by a kid who doesn't know how to swim. I figured wearing it at the back was the best way, wearing it at the front can cause any kid to lose balance and fall on the side, having a great chance of losing the back pack.

After tying the back packs together and putting these beside the window where the grills I sawed off earlier, it was all waiting time. I sat on the stairs and watched the water rose millimeter by millimeter, praying while watching.

All I prayed about was my family's survival. The kids were still very young to be at harm's way. I was ready to go, I have lived a full life, but them...my tears fell...

The reason I worked hard all these years was because of them. That night, I promised myself I'd bring them to safety even if it would cost me my life. I planned my move at any probable stage the flood would get us. Once water reached our 2nd floor, I would get out of the window with the back packs tied at my waist then swim my way to my neighbor's 3rd floor using my swim paddles. Once I get there, I'd put the back packs on my kids and wife, tie their back packs in a line, and tow them to safety as hard as I could, at the extent my strength would allow. I love them, and that's reason enough for me to make sure they survive this tragedy.

At 10:00 p.m., floodwaters stopped rising. I sighed in relief. Little by little, it started going down, one millimeter every 30 minutes. I waited until water has gone down even by half an inch before I started getting some rest. But even then, I would get out of bed every 15 minutes to check whether water was still going down.

At around 5:00 a.m. of Sunday, water has substantially receded, but still was around 6 feet inside my house and around 8 feet outside.

I was running out of food. I only had 4 pandesals, 2 cups of rice and a few fried okra and talong with me. At 8:00 a.m., I heard my wife called out to me from my neighbor's house, asking me how I was and telling me there was food at their side but didn't know how to get some to me.

I was getting hungry and tried thinking of a way to have food transported to me from my neighbor. I saw the roof of my neighbor's sari-sari store. It was just beside the firewall separating my house from theirs. I asked them if they could send someone to that part. When they said yes, I started tying a sheet of fabric to a small back pack. Once there was someone already at the roof of the sari-sari store, I would swing the back pack to him and let them fill it up with food and they would swing it back to me. This was how we transported stuff from and to each other. It was probably a sight to look at.

5:30 a.m., Monday, September 28, water receded to ankle deep inside the house. For the first time in three days, I had a glimpse of the devastation Ondoy has brought to my household.

After getting down, I tried opening the door but was unable to. It swelled and tightened itself up, making it almost impossible for me to open it from the inside. I shouted for help, and immediately, a neighbor climbed up the gate and started kicking the door from the outside until it opened. My mother-in-law was already waiting to get in.

The first thing I did was to clean up the oven and try making it work. Situations like this always result to lack of food and water. By making the oven work, we can boil water thereby taking care of drinking water problems. After cleaning and drying the oven up, it worked. We were then left with food problems.

My mother-in-law heating up the oven

My 1st floor was a pile of wet furnitures, appliances, kitchenwares, glasswares and MUD. Each room has a story to tell. Things piled up on top of each other, a total mess.

My bike room

More of the bike room

The children's playroom

My living room

Living room from another angle

The dining area

My wife's car

My car, swept away to 20 meters from our house

Our street, with my house in the foreground

Relief goods were flown in around 10:00 a.m. of Monday, but I could only count around 5 bags getting dropped. People expected more.

Military personnel visited us on Tuesday trying to help any way they could.

Once water fully receded, the mud problem was evident

Our small business of Christian shirts took a grounding halt. All these were given out to neighbors.

My wife's relatives from Marikina who weren't affected came by to help us clean.

I left the house on Tuesday morning to try find some food. After walking around 2 kilometers of mud and stagnant flood waters, I was able to find a vendor selling freshly slaughtered chicken. There were 3 chickens left and I bought it all. Then an elderly woman asked me if we could split it as her family also had nothing to eat...I gave her one.

It would take 2 days before we could get most of the mud out of our house. By Wednesday lunchtime, electricity was back. For the first time after 5 days, we learned of the extent of the devastation through the radio, and also heard that another typhoon, Pepeng, which was stronger, was threatening to victimize us again.

I called up our office to ask if there was a spare car I could borrow and luckily, there was. I took a shower immediately and commuted to the office to get the car as well as additional relief goods and medicines.

My mother's house was also submerged and they evacuated to MMLDC in Antipolo. My brother works in Meralco and enjoys a discount on the room rates there. Upon learning that typhoon Pepeng was coming, I asked my brother to reserve a room for my family for the weekend or until Pepeng has passed. The kids have had enough and I wouldn't want them to go through the same ordeal again.

We left the house at 12:00 noon of Friday for MMLDC. My househelp's family stayed in our house while we were away.

There was a sigh of relief from everyone after we checked in at the hotel. The dry room and beds, the fresh linens and the safe environment were all what we needed after a week of chaos, devastation and exhaustion. The hot showers were soothing.

The kids slept like little angels. My wife and I took that opportunity to plan the rest of our lives. What were we going to do after this? Do we sell the house and live somewhere safer? The answers are kept hanging as we tried to rest and get some much needed sleep.

Fortunately, and with all the prayers, typhoon Pepeng didn't affect Metro Manila the way Ondoy did.

We went back home on noon time of Sunday, October 4. Our house was showing signs of normalcy. Most of the floor were dried up and only the garage, where most of the cleaning was being done, was the only place wet.

We went through a very tough ordeal, but not tough enough to break our spirits. The kids still carry the trauma of what had just happened, but, I'm sure in time, they will forget about it.

People's lives changed in the afternoon of September 26. We all were reminded that people are no match against the wrath of nature. Insurance companies refer to what happened as an "Act of God", but, why blame it on God when people are the ones who laid waste to the environment?

Everytime I get home from work, I would always tune in to the news. This time around WE were the news, and its something I wouldn't want to be a highlight in.

Filipinos are resilient. We still manage to smile even in the worst of calamities. Does that make us numb? No. It just makes us capable of bouncing back. However, the true essence of bouncing back is the realization that something needs to be learned from everything that all of us have gone through.

Help came from unexpected sources during this ordeal. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU very much. There are a lot of you who have gone out of your ways to extend a helping hand, and rest assured we will repay you in whatever way we can, hopefully, not in similar situations.

Up to a point last Saturday, I tried to save the material things I have collected through the years of hard work. When things became almost hopeless, it was purely a question of survival. In desperate times, GOD will always be our resort. It is HE who nurtures us when our spirits break down. He holds us and looks over us and keeps us safe. He allows us to love, so that in loving we become unselfish. It is with loving that we live and by living we learn to survive.

For as long as God is with us, no Ondoys can break us...

Deo P.