September 26, 2011 will be the second anniversary of Typhoon "ONDOY" (international name KETSANA). "ONDOY" reportedly dumped 455 millimeters of rain in 24 hours on Quezon City, Philippines, as compared to 250 millimeters that Hurricane KATRINA brought to New Orleans in the United States in 2005. As said date is fast approaching, the painful and traumatic memories keep rushing back no matter how I've tried to erase them from the niches of my mind. I can only deduce that such harrowing experience is forever etched in my psyche.
The day before which was a Friday, heavy rains had intermittently been pouring in Marikina City, the place we've been residing since 1996. Our family was smugly confident that the situation would not get worse with our neighbors, the owners of the apartment compound
we're staying, assuring us that water level of the flooded street would not rise above floor level. I had no doubt about their assurance since way back in 1999 when we were still staying in the house of my wife's cousin, Provident Villages underwent again a historical ten-year cycle of flooding. I ventured out of the house and waded in a waist-deep waters to go to the grocery. The next day the waters receded from the streets signifying the end of the historical flood cycle.
The next day, a Saturday, the nightmarish September 26, 2009, began to rear its ugly head. The morning of that fateful day there were no intermittent heavy rains prevalent the previous day. However, the waters from the flooded street outside our apartment compound had already entered the garage area. Still, there was no feeling of worry or anxiety due to previous inconsequential experience of the flood in 1999. However, at about 11:00 AM, I noticed that brownish waters were speeding inside the compound where the one foot level of waters was rising gradually. When the flood waters started to enter our apartment unit, the family started to transfer some appliances to the second floor. The refrigerator was placed near the first step of the stairs leading to the second floor.
After lunch time, my wife and I decided to take a rest in the second floor while my son and a nephew went outside to reconnoiter the situation in our village. Reading the newspapers while lying on the bed, some noise emanating from the ground floor led me to look what was happening down stairs. I was horrified to see the refrigerator floating in the rising flood waters with some rats swimming to clamber upstairs. Informing my wife of what was happening, we went to the balcony to assess the dire situation.
We were dumb-founded to see some ten feet or more flood waters which seemed to rise more and more as time passed by. Asking our neighbors what we should do, they told us to prepare and climb the roof of the apartment building thereby escaping the onrushing flood waters. My wife, I and my youngest son's goddaughter with her nanny clambered up the fire escape leading to the apartment's roof with the aid of our kind and able bodied male neighbors. There we joined about twenty or more other neighbors, elderly and young alike, and sat at the topmost of the roof waiting for the flood waters to ebb away.
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