Deluge

Typhoon Ondoy arrived over the weekend, bringing with it winds and rains and floods of nigh-Biblical proportions. I was at my parents’ place in Malabon, a house built on high ground that nevertheless failed to escape the flood; water crept up the driveway, into the warehouse on the ground floor where my father stored the corrugated boxes he made and sold for a living. We’ve never been flooded like this before. Where is all the water coming from? Blame global warming!

The workers didn’t even wait for their salaries that Saturday; their more immediate concern was returning home to their families. Some had to swim past floods that reached past six feet

From our balcony I saw pigs from the piggery a town away being evacuated to our street on wooden planks being towed by five men. Some of the pigs were being carried over men’s shoulders. I wondered how heavy they were, the pigs, and then wondered when the electricity would come back on so I can check my Facebook account.

I watched from streets away as the flood slowly rose to the level of the car tires, then past the windows. I wondered how they’ll clean that in morning, then complained about how I couldn’t finish checking my student papers without lights.

The electricity was cut off around four thirty in the afternoon. Whether it was a malfunction or done intentionally by Manila Electric Company no longer mattered by five thirty.

The residence was built on the second floor of our house, and so our personal items were spared, but father spent a long Saturday night sitting in the dark, counting in his head the money he has lost, and worrying about how to recover, in a business that was already adversely affected by the economy this year.

We played refugee camp to relatives who otherwise would have been stranded in worse places, and we made do with canned goods and rice for dinner. Stories were shared. About how they saw the strong flood currents sweep people off their feet. A couple of our workers came back, saying they failed to navigate the flood, and asked if they could spend the night at our place. An anecdote was shared about a father whose hands slipped off his child’s and lost him in the flood, and another about a woman who fell into a ditch she failed to see.

By nightfall, I forgot about the work I needed to finish but couldn’t because of the blackout, my mind replaced instead with worry over my sisters, and friends who hadn’t responded to text messages asking how they were. In the end, there was nothing much else to do but pray, and sleep, and hope that tomorrow will be better.

The photo, taken on Sunday morning, 7am, in Malabon. As close as I could get without wading into the flood myself. Amid a throng of worried neighbors, I watched as an inflatable rubber boat carried to dry ground residents who have been stranded on rooftops and whatever other transient refuge they could find since last night. We were there to greet them, help them how ever we can, or satisfy our curiosity. As the rescued step down the inflatable boats, more updates: of missing family members, of hunger and not having eaten anything in thirteen, fourteen hours, of sleeplessness and fatigue. Here the water level has subsided since last night, but it’s still about four feet deep. I am told it is worse in other towns and cities.

I am told other things as well: that it rained in that one day about the same amount of rainfall we get on average in a month. That the water levels surpass those of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. That it is, by far, the worst flooding in forty years.

But no one is telling me what I really want to know: Why did this happen? How can this be avoided? Is that even possible? What does this mean for all of us? What happens next?

What can we do now?

In the immediate future at least, there are a number of things that can be done to help those in need. TxtPower.org has set up a system that accepts donations via SMS and Paypal, and will be forwarded to Red Cross. Ateneo de Manila University is also accepting relief goods; you can donate by dropping them off at the MVP Lobby and Cervini Hall. Finally, this Google Spreadsheet is meant to track nationwide relief operations by various groups in the wake of Ondoy, so you know where you can send donations or offer help. If you know of others, leave a comment and help spread the word.