INUNDATED



It was September 26, 2009, Saturday, I had my schedule worked out the whole day. I had planned to do some walking and jogging at 7 a.m. then meet a friend at the Mall of Asia at 8:00 a.m., then proceed to office to finish some workload and at 2pm attend a seminar on financial literacy.

Not a single task was accomplished on that fateful day. It was a drizzle that welcomed me in the early morning. An hour had passed, the rain seemed to have a field day, pouring in more droplets of water from above without let up. The water in the street was beginning to rise and the rain kept pouring in with all its might, something was wrong, and so I thought. I kept looking out at the window and observing the water level outside, and when it reached the critical level which was an unusual occurrence, I instructed my Mom to warn my brother to get his car out of the street and move it to a higher ground for safety. It was just in the nick of time before a huge volume of filthy and blackish water invaded our homes and streets.

What we thought was just an ordinary rainfall brought us chest deep flood in our street in a span of a 6- hour downpour. Some low lying houses in our neigborhood were partially submerged at knee deep high. While the torrential rain was relentless, my naughty self didn’t stop me from calling my 9 year old nephew who lives just a few houses away from us and asked him, “Polo, the rain isn’t stopping , do you think it’s already the end of the world?” He hung up on me.

The story of Noah’s Arc was flashing in my mind during that time. Although, the experience we had was not of biblical proportions, the thought of flood rising without mercy was indeed a very frightening scenario. While I was so concerned with our plight, trying to strategize how to overcome the onslaught of flood, we were unaware of what others were going through.

The small storm, Ondoy, caught everyone by surprise. It wreaked havoc in the whole metropolis and nearby towns and provinces. The extent of damage it had created was a nightmare to behold. The rampaging water, rushing like an amuck, flowing and raging like mad, killing and drowning everyone and destroying everything that blocked its way. It was like there was a conspiracy of sorts, landslide, mud, flood, water and garbage attacking the unprepared humans with a cruel intention of annihilating the whole generation in one swoosh. The violent rage of Ondoy was uncontrollable.

Each one has a story to tell. Tales of defeat and courage. Tales of woe and survival. Everyone heard the news and saw the tragic event. The colossal destruction Ondoy left brought miseries to those who were hard hit. The trauma was evident in everyone. The cries and wailing of people brought chills to the spine, while others look for answers why it happened.

Was it an act of God, or was it a man made disaster? We have been warned but we never listened. We never left our comfort zones and went our own ways, pretending to be deaf to the sound of the alarm. We heard about global warming and its immediate effect , climate change. Concerned people begged us to stop environment degradation. Environmentalists extolled us to love nature and be good stewards of all of God’s creations, but still we didn’t respond. The manifestations of a deteriorating environment are glaring: soil erosion, landslides, water at rivers and lakes are rising due to siltation, rampant cutting of trees without replacing them, flooding because of improper disposal of garbage that clogged esteros and canals. Sad to say, we are the culprits ourselves. We are paying what we have sowed and now we learned a lesson the hard way. Ondoy tragedy is only a prelude to a more devastating calamities ahead. Experts and scientists showed the dangers of our non-action and wanton disregard of the calls to do our part, even the smallest step we do when done collectively can still salvage the planet earth, if not, the wrath of nature will continue to avenge the abuse it has suffered from the hands of humans leading us to a life of perdition, of drought, floods, and rising sea levels, the consequences of which are FAMINE and STRIFE. This is a wake up call.