Femme Power

From our roof deck, we could see our neighbors' two-story houses submerged in flood water.

It was like a scene from the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” -  water rising fast, submerging houses and business establishments; devastating even classrooms and churches.   Nothing was spared in the low-lying areas of the Eastern part of Metro Manila.   The worst hit by typhoon Ondoy were Cainta, Pasig, and our very own city of Marikina. Rich and poor communities alike went under water for what seemed like eternity on that day.   In our case, the water rose up to the second floor of our apartment and stayed there for about 10 hours.  Ten hours.  That was how long we were trapped at the rooftop, waiting for rescuers to pass by and see us.   That was how long we kept watch if the water would reach the third floor or worse, the roof deck.  For those long hours, we prayed for the rain to stop.  And thank God, it died down to drizzles later in the deep of the night.

Early afternoon that day, September 26, I heard someone knocking on the door.   It was a distressed neighbor saying “Ate, andito na po ang tubig sa may hagdanan!” (The water has risen up to the stairs.)  It took me a while to understand what kind of water she was talking about (I thought a gallon of distilled water is being delivered).  To my horror, I saw murky flood water rising up to the top of the stairs close to our door!  For a second there, I was hysterical.  All I could say was “Oh my God! Oh my God!”  My mind went blank.  So did the power supply.  Flood water was creeping up to my feet, electricity went off, I couldn’t see nor think clearly.  It was like a bad dream.  Then I stopped pacing back and forth and tried to regain what was left of my sanity.   What should I do first?  “Bianca!  I need to secure Bianca!”  I immediately held my daughter and before guiding her up to the rooftop, I doubled her clothes to keep her warm.  While getting her dressed, Bianca looked up to me and said, “Why are you crying mom?”  Apparently she didn’t sense the danger.  I gathered myself and forced myself to be calm so that I wouldn’t scare her. 

The other tenants, even those from the ground floor unit, were already at the third floor and the roof deck, waiting for rescue.  It turned out that they already packed their things earlier and ran up to the rooftop before their unit at the ground floor went totally underwater around 1 pm.  All that happened without our knowledge.   If nobody knocked on our door, we wouldn’t have known until the water has entered our unit.

After ushering Bianca to the roof deck, me and my husband raced against time (and water) as we tried to salvage whatever we could -  cash, important documents, clothes, the desktop, the TV, small appliances.  The girl next door who alerted us earlier helped us secure our things to the upper floors.  Other tenants (whose names we didn’t even know) started helping as well.  I was able to get some food from the fridge before it eventually flipped over and floated on the water.  The small amount of food and chocolate drinks I was able to snatch from the fridge served as our sustenance all through the night.  There were 12-14 of us trapped at the third floor and rooftop.  

While we were vacating our unit at the second floor, I heard a lot of screaming outside.   Some of our neighbors were being rescued in an inflatable beach tube (yes, a not a rubber boat but a beach tube or better known in the Philippines as salbabida!) from the second level of their house.   I couldn’t blame them for screaming.  With that high level of water and that strong current, you’d have second thoughts of being rescued with a salbabida alone.

The rescuers never returned for us after that rescue.   I gathered the kids (my daughter Bianca and our neighbor’s son who took refuge with us) and together, we prayed.   My family and friends in the provinces kept texting and calling me while watching the flash reports on TV.   They saw an aerial view of Marikina mostly submerged in water and that made them panic.

What added to my agony was my dying phone battery.  Just as I was talking to somebody from the Office of Civil Defense about our location and other details, my phone died.  

There was nothing left for us to do but wait for the rescuers to find us…or wait for the water to either rise some more or subside.  

(First of two parts)

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