Typhoons and storms come and go in the Philippines. Every other month, stories that come out about the victims could be desensitizing. It’s like becoming a new normal. We hope that every time this frequenting natural disaster happens, we as a nation would have done better the next time. Those who are spared from the calamities must have learned the lessons.
There are just things I don’t fuss about, like events that have never happened to me, so I thought, it could never happen to me. That was until the crippling effect of the recently passed typhoon Glenda affected us. This was my first time to be responsible to clean up and fix what it destroyed. This is a story about God’s grace and a reminder to be wise enough to prepare for disaster.
It was announced that a fairly strong typhoon would come into Philippine’s area of responsibility. Everyone was advised to gear up for this potentially destructive calamity. My husband, Mak, texted me to prepare accordingly. He works in Manila on weekdays, while me and my son Ramon stay in Lipa City. I kinda hadn’t taken seriously the time table of its arrival. I was informed that it would come on a Tuesday. It started to rain quite hard in the afternoon, but then stopped. I went to our canteen, which was a few blocks away. I quipped, “so that was the typhoon already?” Then, a man filled me in, “It’s predicted to come tomorrow. We were already told to come home to our families.”
I was foolish enough to think that I wouldn’t be affected by it just like the many previous storms. I experienced waist-deep floods in our ground floor in one of our former homes, riding on an improvised boat to get home and braving the floods within the vicinity of UST just to get home. In my latter single years, I lived in a condominium with my parents and siblings, and then Davao, which is rared by typhoons. In the condo, you would hear the pour of rain and some howling of the wind, but nothing much happens to your house structurally. The only inconvenience it would give is a brown out, which is not that felt in such a living set-up because condominiums are usually equipped with generators.
Nevertheless my husband came home on Tuesday night. Initially, he came home just because he had the opportunity, although they had been given a heads-up to return to their families because of a coming typhoon. The latter was like a secondary factor. Talk about right timing!
When he arrived, it began raining hard that it was so cool and we didn’t need an electric fan to be comfortable. I love a rainy, windy weather. Deep into the night, it wasn’t sounding good. The gushing winds howl eerily. It was getting stronger! It was really bothersome that I couldn’t sleep.
At 1am the power shutdown. I guess it was done to prevent short circuits or any other electrical damage. I was still up at 2am, when my husband woke up from sleep briefly to shut all our windows. He saw that some water that entered the window in Ramon’s room puddled up. It’s not a bother. I still couldn’t sleep pass 2am because the sound of the wind was really scary. I could hear objects banging onto the ground. What could it be? I slept at a certain time when I was already mentally tired, which is usually the condition I had to be when I fall asleep.
We woke up at around 10am. My husband got up few minutes ahead of me. He reported to me that the typhoon detached the board of wood covering the slot for the air-con in the master’s bedroom, hence, a significant amount of rainwater came in. Also, water was seeping thru the ceiling. Consequently, the ground floor is wet.
When I saw it myself, our bed with its linens and pillows are soaking wet. Puddles of water are on the floor in the master’s bedroom and half of our ground floor. Baby’s playmat is placed on the living room, instead of a coffee table. It naturally absorbed the water dripping above. As for that dripping water, even after we mopped the affected 2nd floor spots, through that ceiling which I assume is of plywood, several droplets permeate weirdly. We wonder where the water is coming from.
Our neighbor checked on us. It was the only time when I came out and saw what was worse. Cut-off tree branches are scattered everywhere. There were some deformed roofs on the ground. The driving range which is part of our view at the garage was flooded. A neighbor at the end of the rowhouse in front of us had his garage roofs completely torn off.
There was no electricity and water. Glad we had switched to gas cooking. It was quite a challenge to cook when I don’t usually. My husband was cleaning while I had to strap baby in his high chair so as I could make something for us to eat.
We took a nap, then after that continued cleaning and prepared to evacuate ourselves to Manila. Truly, there was a part of me that felt like we were escaping and leaving the rest of our neighbors in the dark. On the other hand, my husband had to be in Manila for work and if it was just me and baby, then it would be us needing help, which wouldn’t be helpful at this time.
It was good we left at night because earlier, we couldn’t easily get out of our area because long logs blocked our road entirely. It is really noticeable that a lot of trees were broken and branches have fallen.
Despite of the hassle, I still have a lot of things to thank God for. First of all, I wasn’t alone with baby when it all happened. My husband came at the very right time. I couldn’t imagine how helpless and rattled I might have been. Thank God because it was just a broken plywood, dripping ceiling, wet floors, detached back wiper of the car, a hole in the tail light and a small dent from a flying roof that momentarily bumped into it, a city wide black out and no tap water supply. Thank God because we have my mother who is willing to take us in temporarily in Manila everytime we need a place. There’s so much grace as we went through these.
This experience taught us lessons that we procrastinated on previously:
- This is also reminds me how important preparedness for disasters is. It is necessary to have a disaster kit. Let me post a photo illustration of what a disaster kit should contain, which I got from social media.
- About the food, no-cook ones are better. It is best to prepare paper plates and plastic spoons. Water was scarce so it would be hard to trouble yourself to wash dishes and worst, the cooking pots!
- I better have big drums of water. There are moments of water supply interruption in our place, previously. I really should have made this a priority.
- Power bank is a good investment.
- Have flashlights. Keep candles as well for back-up.
- Close all windows during a storm. Hide and secure what can be flown or ripped by strong winds.
- Pray. It strengthens us.
Life in General 