10 Things I learned from Typhoon Ondoy

1. That I have too many clothes. I realized that when I have to send everything to laundry. Yes, all 60 plus kilos of them.
2. My laptop, shoulder bag and make-up cabinet are the most important among all my worldly possessions.
3. That I can carry a big leather sofa and place them one on top of the other.
4. That I can still change into my Boracay outfit even if the water is already up to my thighs.
5. That experiences like this can bring out the best or the worst in a person and nothing in between.
6. That I don't need to exercise to loose weight. I just have to mop the floor 100x to remove the mud and scrub the walls clean.
7. That Zonrox is one of the best disinfectant and that magic mops can work magic in cleaning mud.
8. That one of the first things I will buy when I move to my marital home would be a BIG Plastic container for pictures and important documents.
9. That a lot of people loves me.
10. That we are still lucky and blessed despite everything.

And then there was Typhoon Ondoy...

My last thought before I fell asleep that Friday night was that tomorrow I have to wake up early because Al and I will put together our save the date. We planned on giving it out to our guests on October 2nd, exactly 3 months before our wedding. Then Saturday, 26th of September 2009 came, I woke up close to 12:30pm with the sound of my younger sister's voice waking me up. She said "Dichie, gising na yung baha papasok na sa bahay". That woke me instantly. I rushed outside and saw that yes the flood is 2 inches from the last step towards our sala. I instantly shouted "Tara itaas natin lahat ng gamit". That was the start of the most chaotic and traumatic day of my life.

I helped my dad put up our 2 big leather sofas one on top of the other. I pulled out all my clothes and initially placed them in the bed of Dennise which is the lower bed of the double deck that we are sharing. I put everything up, everything I can see. At around 1PM water is reaching my knee, I have to transfer all my clothes to the higher deck of the bed. By then my dad has shut down our main power breaker because all our sockets were covered with water. When the water reached my thighs, I said to my dad to start transferring important things to the car which luckily my dad was able to bring out of our garage to a higher part of our street. By close to 2PM water is fastly reaching my hips. I am getting nervous. The water seems to be sipping in fast. Every trip to the car to load stuffs water seems to be getting higher and higher outside. By past 2PM, I announced to my parents that we have to lock the doors and vacate the house. The water is already up to my chest outside and close to my waist inside the house. Rain is pounding loudly as I lock our door and finally our gate. I left everything then to God. I told him whatever happens I am just asking one thing that he bring us to a safe place. As I turn my back to our house another dilemna faced me. The flood is already near the door of our car and my dad said it will not start. It was very very cold but it is much colder when I realized that whatever was saved inside our car will also drown in flood. Then I heard men shouting "Anu tulak natin?". Without thinking twice I said YES! Five brave souls pushed our car to a higher and safer ground and hurray the car immediately started and flushed out water. My dad said we can go to his friend, Tito Joe who lives near floodway. So we went there but anxiety still creeps in we want to see if we can still go back to the house and save more stuffs. And so we did, leaving Dennise to Tito Joe. We asked my mom to stay at the car because there are a lot of looters roaming around the parked cars. By then the water reached my hip bone at the main street, De Castro street (the main road of our subdivision) which 30 minutes ago was just thigh high. Then my dad and I saw our house from the main street... we both know there is no way we can enter again. Flood already covered more than half of our windows (shoulder level).

We went back to Tito Joe's house and I saw 4 missed calls from Al. I called him because I know my battery won't last long. My plan is to let him know we are safe and where we are so he knows where he can find us. But then he had a suggestion the flood on the other side of the bridge where Al lives is just up to the knee. He said we can all stay in their house for the meantime. The plan was for us to walk all the way to Floodway Bridge. A good 10 minutes by car with no traffic. My dad said he cannot leave the car at Tito Joe's place because of the loiters around. He said I can take Dennise with me but my mom and him will just stay there. He drove us as near as he could get to Floodway Bridge then we went down and have to walk. The water at the side of the bridge is up to my hips and I have to push Dennise up to the stairs. The rain is pounding our faces but I kept on praying for God to guide Al to see us. There are a lot of people at the bridge. Some Walking, many are running, everyone is in a big hurry to get home to their families. And then there was Al running towards Den and me. I told my dad to turn back while he can. I told him to text me as soon as he was able to return to Tito Joe's house.

So together with Al, Den and I walked towards the other end of floodway bridge and we went down at the side stairs where water is very low compared to the Ortigas Extension entrance of the subdivision where Al lives. The flood in their area is knee high pretty manageable for Den and me who braved the waters up to chest deep.As soon as we got there, I checked my mobile hoping that my dad already texted but there was none. So I used Al's landline to ask my dad where are they. He said they were stuck in floodway where my dad left his car. An image of floodway's roaring waves flashed in my mind. I was very worried for their safety. I was thinking anytime floodway can overflow. It was the longest 30 minutes for me but finally thru God's graces I received an sms confirming that they reached safety.

September 27 before lunch, Al and I went back to the bridge in the hope that we can reach my parents to bring them food. The bridge is crowded with buses and commuters who was stuck there since Saturday. We know then that the flood reached our roof. There were media everywhere. I even saw Bayani Fernando busily supervising the demolition of the side road of floodway in the hopes that it can help lower down the flood.

It was September 28, Monday when water finally cleared our house. We saw our dog hanged in our gate. Before my dad and I went, we got him out of his cage and placed him in the roof. We thought the flood won't reach him. He was not able to wait for us... Our neighbors said they were all trying to reach for him but the flood is so high and the current is strong. He swam towards our gate and was stuck in the fence. To our dog Polo, who has been with us since I was a college freshman, who saved and warn us against the many times people attempted to enter our house to steal. Thank you for always welcoming us home. We are sorry we were not able to save you. Thank you to the many wonderful years of service to our family.

It took more than a week to make our home liveable again and it will take much longer to bring everything back to normal. We lost a lot of things but I am thankful that we are safe. Stay tuned to my next blog... lessons I learned thanks to Ondoy.

P.S. My camera was one of the casualties of Ondoy that is why I don't have any picture to document this experience. The photo was actually taken at the entrance of our subdivision.