Flood Waters Rising Each Second!

A few days before the typhoon struck, I saw the warning on TV--a powerful "cyclone" was on its way to Luzon, the main island of the Philippines where Metro Manila is situated. I felt a bit uneasy but decided it was probably just another typhoon--as many people had apparently dismissed it, too.

Saturday early morning, September 26, 2009, at our place in Project 8, Quezon City in Metro Manila, strong winds and rain were already raging incessantly, and our planned brisk walk with my wife and kids was spoiled. At 8 am my wife decided to go to the wet market for some raw food. The rain had worsen then, and seemed ominous. I felt a bit worried for my wife leaving home in that rain. I was typing something for my blog.

At 10 am, my wife came home all excited and wide-eyed---the skies were so dark and floods were strangely up at the main highway, she said! I saw the street canals in front our place--it was alarmingly swelled, almost covering the whole street, with water raging like a wild forest river. The street corner downhill was flooded.

At the same time, my sister sent me a cellphone text message saying she and her two house help-companions were stranded somewhere in the city. There were too few public jeeps available, and anyway, the traffic had halted to a standstill, she said! What was she going to do? she asked me. I went to the garage and saw it vacant--my niece had taken her kid daughter to the hospital early that morning in her car for incessant vomiting. I texted my sister back to say the car was not available. She didn't reply back. I started getting worried. Where were they?

About the same time, too, my wife's sister texted us, saying she had to abandon her car along E. Rodriguez, Jr. Avenue (a national road in Quezon City) because the flood waters had reached the roof of her car! That really got us doubly worried. What's happening? Where was she? We tried to send her some text messages but she didn't respond. I knew then there was a city-wide emergency.

Unknown to us that time, Metro Manila was beginning to get underwater, overwhelmed by typhoon Ondoy. The worse hit were cities like Marikina, Pasig, Quezon City ,and Manila. And areas like Cainta, New East (Bagong Silangan), Pateros, and Antipolo were likewise affected. Well, practically the whole metropolis was already dangerously underwater.

After the flash floods (the day after), our relief-operation team went around Parkway Village in Quezon CIty. It was terribly hit, though not highlighted by the media. We saw the horrifying devastation, talked to the flood victims, and got the following stories:

"We Thought We'd Die in the Ceiling"

We operate a Christian school in Parkway Village, and 22 of the parents whose kids are enrolled in the school suffered the worse. One of them, a single-parent, lived right beside the river. At about 9 am that Saturday morning, water was slowly rising. They were preparing to get some appliances safe from the water's reach when suddenly water from the river crazily spilled over their backyard fence, destroying the concrete fence, splashed over their dogs and terrace garden set, and then violently crashed through their kitchen wall! The dogs all died. There was no time to take them out of the cages.

They hurriedly brought her kid up the second floor. She left her cellphone on the fridge while doing this. Then she immediately went back the ground floor, only to find the fridge gone along with her cellphone in the water. Flood waters were rising each second and they had no time to save any belongings. She and her woman companion went up the stairs to join her daughter. There was no time to run outside the house because the water was dangerously rising swiftly, and the flood waters were raging so violently you'd easily be thrown off balance and washed by the current---like what happened to people who died in the flood.

The waters were still rising way past the second floor level, so they decided to climb up the celing and stay there. There was no way out. They stayed up there from about 9 past in the morning till 4 or 6 in the afternoon. Mother and daughter tied their hands so that their "bodies" would be found together by rescue workers in case they drowned. They were ready to meet death. Thank God the rain suddenly stopped at about 6 pm.

"Our Roof was a Dead End"

Another family we talked to said even the roof of their house where they were standing on as a last resort when the flood waters reached 20 feet was fast being swallowed by the flash flood, and they had no other way of escape. Most of their neighbor's roofs were underwater, too, and they had to cross the street to get to the last remaining high roof in the neighborhood. They thought it was the end of their family.

Crossing seemed impossible because of the wild, powerful waves that carried away cars and trucks with it. But using powerful ropes and will power, they managed to cross the street and get to the highest roof remaining by first carrying their kids across, and then themselves. A grandpa was telling me that he'd warned his family to evacuate early that morning when the flood waters were yet starting to rise. But the family members were all lured to sleep by the cold weather. They woke up with flood waters rushing into their house, realizing that it was too late to evacuate to safer grounds.

"We Were Helpless as We Watched our House and Family from Afar"

Some folks who were rushing home from work couldn't come closer to their houses than about 50 meters away. They saw how the flood mercilessly swallowed houses up to their rooftops, including their own, but they could do nothing but watch from afar in horror. They called their wives and kids thought their cell phones, but all they could was keep their families' spirits up. Their wives dissuaded them from trying a rescue attempt, saying it's better to have at least their husbands in a safe place.

One parent told me they had to climb and cross roofs to get to a higher residence--a house owned by a judge. They were begging the judge to let them enter his house through a window, but the judge refused. He instead gave them clothes and biscuits. Well, at least, said the parent, he also took their babies in the safety of his home.

The parent added that they were helpless as they watched their cars, jeeps, and tricycles taken by the wild current from their place to the next street corner and piled there on top of each other. They were wondering what made the river swell so rapidly and so enormously. It seemed to rise up several inches by the second!

Others Were Not as Lucky

Some reportedly died in Parkway Village. One vendor told me a body was seen rolling over the raging waves coming from some place else. People saw the body, that of a man, all bloated, but nobody could do a thing. They were all also trapped by the floods and needed help at the time. We also got reports that several house maids left locked in a house and trapped by the floods drowned.

Another parent whose house was severely and brutally demolished by flood waters told me that even a drizzle now caused her to shake in horror. After the typhoon had left, more weaker rains followed, and this sent her a chilling sensation up her spine, fearing the worse again. "I just keep myself busy with something to do whenever I hear the rain again. Nonetheless, I shake in fear."

The village which was once a beautiful showcase of affluence is now an ugly scene of devastation, a result of nature's cruel vengeance--something like what one might see in nightmares. Residents rich and poor have horror stories to tell. As we made rounds around the neighborhood, we saw smashed cabinets, piles and piles of wet or damp clothes, scattered family pictures, ruined appliances, documents, books, wrecked vehicles and trucks all sprawled out on the streets, all hopelessly muddied and rendered useless. Every house was a mess with mud water, grime, and trash scattered in and around them. People walked around their houses with feet and legs all muddied. There's no water or electricity. I wondered how they sleep at night with their beds and sofas all soaked in mud.

Some Signs of Hope

We gathered together a team for relief work, as several others are doing everywhere in the metropolis. These are mobilized through self-initiative. In our case, we believe we were urged by God to help by asking help from others. We were a church-based team who sought help in cash and kind from businesses in the neighborhood who were spared by the flood. By God's grace, they supported by donating sacks of rice and stocks of canned goods and instant noodles.We also asked for clothes and blankets.

In the pictures shown here are my wife and the team handing out relief goods to the victims. Everyone had to serve the people with a smile to somehow impart hope. In some pictures, the victims still found it apt to smile and laugh amid their suffering--a Pinoy trait in the face of life's vicissitudes. By God's goodness, grace, and mercy, more than 250 families were helped in Parkway Village and in the surrounding communities. But thousands others still waited for relief. We ran out of items to give--and it hurt so much to see them go without anything in hand to bring home to their starving families.

As of this writing (a few days after Ondoy), many are still waiting for help that never comes, and many people are still missing. We hear over the radio about communities either still deep in flood waters or waiting to be rescued and given aid--at least food and shelter. As a church-based relief team, we can only give out what is given us. But we trust God, the Provider, to meet all the people's needs. We continue to pray.

There are too many sorry pictures of the flood on the Internet, so I decided to post here some positive ones. This shows that God is always in control. There's hope. God is merciful, though also a God who judges sin.

What happened to my sister and my wife's sister? My sister walked all the way home, wading through the flood, and my sister-in-law found shelter and safety in a squatter community near where her car was submerged. She spent the night there with other flood victims.

The flood experience taught me something I will never forget---disasters turn strangers into long-time friends. They turn communities into one big family.

As of this writing, I and my wife are glued to radio news reports. And according to the latest report, a new super typhoon is now in the Philippine Area of Responsibility, stronger than the flooding 'Ondony' typhoon, and is scheduled to hit Luzon any time now. A rain early this afternoon caused new flooding in Merto Manila.

God help us and forgive us all our sins.

Today, September 27, 2010, all cities affected by Ondoy have fully recovered. Some areas reported full recovery only 6 months after Ondoy struck, attributing the successful recovery to the spirit of bayanihan, or community help and cooperation. Some attributed it to GOD, who alone decides success or failure.

Marikina, said to be among the worst devastated in Metro Manila, celebrated the first year anniversary of Ondoy yesterday with fanfare and parades. Some of us in Project 8, Quezon City, worshiped God with joy in our hearts through His awesome rhema Word and prophetic worship, knowing that the signs of the times only point to His Second Coming! Come Lord Jesus!