September 26, 2009

Typhoon Ondoy / Ketsana hits the Philippines. These are images from Marikina City. The flood destroyed many homes, and according to the Philippine Government / NDCC, death toll reaches 246 and 42 are missing.

Typhoon Ketsana is a natural disaster, but the huge flood is man - made.

I woke up 9:00 AM seeing heavy rain outside my window. I was already late for my 8:30 AM class that's all the way in Manila. I'm from Marikina City, by the way, and just beside Provident Village, and the Marikina River. Anyway, seeing the heavy rain just told myself I'd rather miss that extra curricular subject, rather that soaking myself in that pouring rain.

Around 12 noon, I looked outside and saw water entering our Avenue.  I was at shock because never in my entire life have I seen a large amount of water enter our area. Things happened fast - really fast. Next thing you know, the salon located at the ground floor of our home was flooded with water. People started to rush inside our building - most of them are children.

At first I got angry at my Mom for letting those people in - because I have no idea who they are. They might rob, steal or whatever. I thought about it, and realized they have bigger problems other than money right now, and that's fighting and saving their lives. I sat down in the staircase of our house, watching the water rise. Later on, I saw a child crying, saying: "Mama, I'm sooo hungry", rubbing his tummy starving like hell. Then his Mom just said, "WE'RE STRANDED! WE HAVE NO MONEY! WE'RE NOT EVEN IN OUR HOUSE! YOU EXPECT ME TO GIVE YOU FOOD?" later on he slapped his son, which made him cry more. I pity the child, he's hungry, yeah they don't have food but the Mother doesn't have to yell and slap him.

Another, there's this baby girl crying, who is asking for milk. What did the baby girl get? A hard spank. I saw the mom of the kid - she looks paranoid. It made me think, a lot. They have nothing. They can't give anything to their children but a slap. I saw enough slapping and spanking, so I went back up.

Moments later I went through the back door of our house. There's this lady calling me, "Miss! Help! Please!". I saw her at the second floor of her house, holding 2 babies. "Can we please enter your house? There are 7 children here. The water's rising. Please!"  I thought of the children, so I let them pass through the fire exit to enter our house. I said, "Okay hold on! I'm going to get the keys. I'll let you pass through our fire exit." As I unlock the metal door of our fire exit, I saw the children making their way to our house. Climing different roofs of our neighbors and passed by some chicken wire. It was raining, and the roofs were slippery.

Our house consists of 4 floors: First floor is a salon, second a studio, third our residence, and fourth my dad's office. And our house is only 100sqm. Water level drowned the entire first level, and two more steps before it'll enter the studio. At 9:00 PM, it stopped there. I heard the people talking, and they said, "If God wants us to die, then he'll do this, flood the entire world." One even said, "Lord, why are you doing this to us?" And another "Father do you really want us to die?" Upon hearing those things I got a little mad. Rain is a natural disaster, but flood is most likely a man - made disaster. First possible reason: GLOBAL WARMING - I do believe in Al Gore. Second possible reason could be the water released by the dam. Last is perhaps the there's excessive rain water. So no offense, I think God would never wants us to die.

At 10:00 PM, the water started to drain from our Avenue. Around 2:00 AM, the water level is already knee high, and 3:00 AM, I finally saw the muddy road.