In less than an hour, water started to creep inside our ground floor. We started to elevate our furnitures and appliances while the water inside was just ankle high. However, as we were busy doing such, flood water gets higher and higher, and in less than 2 hours (around 1pm), electricity shut off, water on the ground floor were already chest deep. Panic stricken and already desperate to save all the stuff we have, we have no choice but to stop with the “mission” as the entire ground floor now submerged in water. To make things worse, there was only one guy around the house while these things are happening, and that was my husband, Jay. This was the first time he didn’t go to work on a Saturday!! Think that was meant to be. My father and 2 brothers were all out and were obviously got stranded already.
Around 5:00pm, flood water in the streets almost reached roofs of bungalow houses. This is crazy, no matter how hard the rain could be, this will not happen. Not unless some dams started to release water. 6:00pm and its starting to get dark, even the rainfall has mellowed a bit, the water continued to rise… and now, it already reached our 2nd floor terrace. With barely half inch before the water gets in our 2nd floor, we started to panic again and move stuff now to the 3rd floor. Crazy things started to race in my mind, are we going to be rescued on top of our houses? Are we going to be rescued by some boats or helicopters? Carrying Joachi around, he had grabbed something and started to play with the thing around. When he accidentally dropped it, I realized that the thing he was holding is the Holy Rosary, the one I carried inside my purse on our wedding day. Without hesitation, I started to pray the rosary while everyone was busy moving things up. Saturdays are supposed to be for Glorious mysteries, but for some reason, I couldn’t recall what the Glorious mysteries are! So, I ended up praying the Joyful Mysteries instead.
I’m starting to feel anxiety attacks, I have to pray.. I have to pray for our safety.. I have to pray for the safety of my father and brothers outside whom we don’t have any idea where they were at that moment. I have to pray for the rain to stop and for the water to stop rising. There was no network coverage, cellphone batteries starting to run low. I made sure to send SMS to some friends informing them of our situation, that whatever happens, at least someone knows that we need help. After about an hour after I started praying the rosary, the rain stopped. There was darkness… Deafening silence… Water… Water… We can only see our neighbors’ roofs from our 3rd floor window. Since Joachi wasn’t comfortable sleeping in another room, we decided to go back to our room in the 2nd floor. And since the rain had stopped, we hoped that the water will no longer get in. That was probably the longest night I had ever, I barely slept. I became Joachi’s manual airconditioner. I always check the water level every now and then. Think that was around 4am when I started to doze off.
Thank God, when we woke up the following morning, the water has started to subside. Though it’s still around 15ft deep, the hope that it will continue to subside made me feel safer. The sun started to shine and people were already out on their roofs, all worried but somehow looked relieved. I started texting my brother and some of my friends that we are in need of formula milk, wilkins and diapers for Joachi. Since we do our grocery shopping on weekends, supplies were already running out when the flooding happened. Helicopters were moving around, people from their rooftops were screaming, asking for relief goods, hoping something will be dropped to them. I cannot imagine this was happening in real life. I only see these scenes on TV.
Monday, September 28. My father made it home by midnight, my youngest brother who got stranded for 2 days sleeping on different malls arrived home early Monday, my other brother came a little later with Joachi’s milk, diapers and wilkins. All have different stories to tell. They’ve braved the raging water just to get home.
The support, concern and love of our family and friends were so overwhelming. When the water totally subsided nearly an hour before lunch, we received Joachi’s milk and wilkins from my sister’s friend whom she also texted for help the day before. We were surprised by my boss’ visit to check on our condition. We were visited by my sister’s church mates to bring some groceries and clothes. Later that night we were moved to a safer and more comfortable place c/o coca cola company (special thanks to john and chava)… We are so blessed!
I don’t know how many people prayed the rosary that Saturday night, but all I know is that, we were saved by ONE JOYFUL MYSTERY. I am not religious but I am a believer.
Thanks for posting this to your site kuya onie… btw, it’s charie 😉
got it. changed it already. take care and we’ll be praying for you, especially with the next big typhoon coming. God will provide…
wow…that’s crazy.
There was no way on earth I would let my terror professor see me hyperventilate or bawl into tears like a baby.
You should work on those little changes and work your way
up slowly. The growing feeling of anxiety, shorter and more frequent breaths, rapid heart rate, and the rest
of them. Realize how crucial it is for you to modify your lifestyle so they
will be lessened, and then totally eliminated.