I’m down to my notebook’s last 69% of battery life. It’s black out all over Metro Manila. Floods are everywhere. Even though the area where our house in at is just in the nick of luck (we are right in the middle of flooded barrios with water height averaging from the knee up to the chest), at the height of the storm, flood waters only up to the ankle reached our kitchen.
It was supposed to be a typical event day for us, a wedding reception on a Saturday. I woke at 4am and I jumped at work right ahead. The first batch of my staff going to the venue at Mt. Carmel, QC left the house at 6am. I was scheduled to leave with the food and the rest of my staff at around 9:30, and as scheduled we head off to the wedding. We were unsuspected of what Ondoy’s pitch for the day was really about.
Going to the venue we first felt the day’s gravity when it took us a complete hour just to get out Pasig. We were supposed to take C5 but after seeing the long line of vehicles at the Bagong Ilog fly over, we decided to take Pasig Blvd instead. As my driver would put it, Ortigas – Greenhills was supposed to be the easiest way to reach Broadway, but as we trek along San Juan, in my mind it was really nothing but easy. It took us 2.5 hours get out of the traffic and the heavy floods. My poor driver had to brave himself everytime he pushed the van to get through gushing waters.
We arrived at the reception almost 45mins late. (The wedding was also delayed since the groom arrived 30mins late. Even the groom’s father was stuck on traffic and missed his fave son’s wedding) The program already started and even though I was drenched from dashing through the parking lot and I so looked like hell, I never bothered. I just wanted the food to be ready for the hungry guests and the worried newly-weds so I was almost on top of my voice as I gave instructions to my staff. Only about half arrived of the 240 expected guests. They were able to eat at exactly 1pm.
I thought the worst was over.
My captain waiter went to me and said if he could borrow my phone. He needed to call home since his wife and his two daughters, still toddlers, were battling through knee-deep waters already inside their house—which is by the way just a few blocks from ours. Another staff reported that his wife had been calling him up to tell that his in-laws’ house was flooded through the roof. One after another, almost all of my staff conveyed that floods reached the inside of their houses. I called up mom, worried since my staff and I are at the very same community. True enough I caught up with mom trying to dry up the water inside the house all by herself.
The worst wasn’t over yet.
Right after the wedding reception, I was able to talk to my clients. It was a consolation that the couple was still happy (inlove, *sigh*) even though things were not as good as they planned. Guests were stuck at the reception, all entry points at the Broadway-Cubao area was flooded. The priest in charge of the parish had to announce that we had to clear off the reception area since they were going to use it to evacuate the community around the church.
I was crushed seeing the kids and babies soaked in rain water. Their innocence was the only thing that’s keeping them from distress. I saw mothers crying and fathers trying to keep their families safe. It was such an unbearable sight.
The only thing we could do to help was to offer the Parish a big pot of left over soup and another pot of rice since our client already brought with them most of the leftovers.
Right after we packed our equipment, my staff and I hurried home. We were all anxious to get to our own families. The only relief that we had was that we were able to reach Pasig in just a few minutes since the streets were already cleared of traffic. The almost 4-hour travel to the reception went down to 20 minutes. Along our way we saw people crossing though chest deep floods. Only the roofs of lineup vehicles were the visible signs that flood waters washed out some street.
We reached our house. My mom and dad (who got home later in the afternoon) were able to put out all the flood waters in our house. My brother was stranded in some hotel lobby in Manila, while my Aunt had quite an adventure herself since she had a myriad of things she did just to get home from Cavite.
My mom told me that some of our relatives and friends are now in trouble. Our relatives in Cainta whom we gave our beloved Potch (our fave dog) and Inipit (one of our kitties) to had to evacuate their house, and until now we don’t have the strength to ask them how the pets were since we know that they lock them in cages. =.( Although of course we are relieved already that nothing bad happed to my ninang, pinsan and inaanak. (They told us that the thing that they were only to save was a bottle of milk for Igi Boy)
I’m now down to the last 15% of my battery and this ought to shut any minute.
I hope for the better. I hope everybody’s safe.
I hope.
(September 27, 2am)
Ipinaskil sa pagbabahagi
