Typhoon trauma

Just a few days after Typhoon Pedring left the country, another typhoon, Typhoon Quiel, is expected this weekend. I hope this one will not be as intense and destructive like Pedring as most of the affected areas have not yet recovered from Pedring's wrath.

Being an Ondoy survivor, it always scares me whenever we experience strong typhoons. The flood brought about by Ondoy last September 26, 2009 is one unforgettable experience for me. I had the biggest scare of my life that day. My husband left a little after lunch that day to try to help his nephew and niece who were stranded also because of the flood in Cainta. It never crossed our mind that we, too, will experience flood that day. Even though we only live a few blocks away from the Marikina River, we never experienced flood in our area.

We were supposed to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday so Andrei's cousins were with us at my in-laws' house. We were watching the people outside when we noticed the brown water on the street quickly rising. In just a matter of minutes, the water was waist deep inside the house (chest deep on the street outside). I stayed with the kids at the second floor of the house while my in-laws carried the appliances and furniture from the first floor to the second floor.

I was able to talk to my mom on the cell phone before the signal went off. My parents house is just two streets away from my in-laws. She and my other siblings tried to grab whatever they could save but most of the things were already submerged in muddy waters. Our relatives who are living just a few meters from the Marikina River literally swam to our house for shelter. They weren't able to bring anything, even clothes and food because the water rose too quickly that they had to swim their way out of their house. My mother told me that my dad and my youngest sister were not home and she could not contact them.

Not knowing where your loved ones during times like that is really scary. Luckily, all three of them were safe. My dad climbed on the roof of one house and stayed there overnight. My husband were able to swim to one of his relative's house to seek shelter and my sister was able to spend the night at our relative's house which is a few kilometers from her school. Amidst the fear I felt that day, I was really, really thankful that all my loved ones are still with me now. God is really good. He answers prayers.

Here are some pictures of our Ondoy experience.

The morning after.

See the muddy water mark? Half of the car was submerged in water. My dad parked the car a few meters away from the fence but the water carried the car to the fence which left an ugly dent in the bumper.

Who wouldn't be traumatized by this experience? This kind of calamity is preventable if only people learned to take care of the environment earlier. Why do we need this kind of awakening experience to learn? We have options. We do not have to learn things the hard way.