The DJ who's not a DeeJay

Out of all the typhoons I've witnessed, Typhoon Ondoy has made the most impact on us.

Being a resident of Marikina City, we're accustomed to floods during the rainy season. As with other residents, we have our own set of protocols when we're expecting flood waters to rise. All our sofas and chairs are placed on top of wooden tables. Everything on the ground is placed on higher shelves. All appliances are unplugged and our main power switch is shutdown. Candles, matches, batteries, and flashlights are all checked and made sure that they are easily reachable when needed. And whatever food, water and goods we can use to eat and drink is saved and placed upstairs in case of emergency. There are lots of other minor details we follow and most of the time, the water just goes up to knee level which in our experience, is not very detrimental. Of course it's saddening and we all know that when the floods subside, there is a whole lot of cleanup that follows. But it's feasible.

What happened with Typhoon Ondoy is one of a kind. Never has the rains poured non-stop and in an extremely alarming amount. Never has the flood water rise so high in a short span of time. And so even with all the precautions and preparations we had, we were totally caught offguard. The floods in our house rose to an all-time high and a 1st for us, at five feet deep. And by this time, eveyrthing started floating. Walking your way through floating obstacles in shoulder-high waters is not an easy task. How much more difficult would it be for our less fortunate victims of the flood who have experienced deeper waters with nowhere to go.

After the storm, people were left hungry, homeless, sick and weak. Thousands of families suffered heavily from the floods.
It's a good thing that many have heard of the devastation and destruction Typhoon Ondoy has left. Victims needed help and there was an enormous population of victims to cater to. As a result, several groups, organizations and volunteers emerged to adhere to the victims.

One of those groups who have offered their unconditional support is the Lopez Group of Companies. Called "Sagip Kapamilya", they called on everyone to donate in cash and in kind. Backed up by ABS-CBN's vast media resources, they were able to conduct a nationwide call for donations and in such a short amount of time, they were able to collect millions which was being constantly used to buy relief goods for victims. Even ABS-CBN personalities and celebrities actively helped first hand in delivering relief goods to the typhoon victims. Thanks to Sagip Kapamilya, you see the nation becoming one. Kudos to their relief efforts.

On behalf of my fellow city citizens, salamat sa Sagip Kapamilya from Marikina. For updates on cash and kind donation totals, check out their Facebook page or their website at http://www.lopezlink.ph.

Here is my personal account and experience from Typhoon Ondoy.

Unfortunately, we've been hardly hit and affected by the recent Typhoon Ondoy last Sept 26. (Day 1) where flood waters reached to an all-time high of almost 5 feet inside our house. This is the worst and deepest we've ever experienced here in our house in SSS Village, Marikina City.

We're used to floods and most of them only reach the street in front of us or rarely, up to 1 foot inside the house. Nothing can prepare you for a flash flood that rises at an alarming rate. We were caught offguard with the waters as it has never flooded this fast ever. In a span of less than 4 hours, the waters rose from street level to chest deep inside the house. Cars parked along the streets were submerged till the top of their windshields. Car alarms set off one by one including our two cars inside our garage and driveway. Believe me that trying to remove a car battery while submerged in water and being all wet while dealing with something delicate as a wet car battery possibly exposing ourselves to ground and shock while panicking is such a stressful and scary experience.

Typhoon Ondoy's rainfall in a short span of time was measured to be more than what an average month worth of rainfall was. On top of this all, Marikina is also affected by the overflowing and releasing of water from 2 dams which pass through the Marikina River. The river overflowed and so instead of our street waters being channeled towards the river, the waters from the river were spilling outwards to all areas.

Our electricity and phone lines were all cut. My celphone was low on battery charge and the only communication we had was listening to the radio. We tried to move whatever we could to higher ground but there simply wasn't much time to do everything. A lot of our stuff was submerged in water and even huge and big appliances and furniture like our refrigerator, sofa, tables and chairs were all floating. The 1st floor became an obstacle course with an advanced level of difficulty. Imagine trying to carry a TV on top of your head cause waters were chest deep, walking through the flood and avoiding huge moving objects like a huge cabinet floating in an unpredictable direction. Thank God we had a 2nd floor but it was quickly filling up with stuff that we needed to make way to go up and down the stairs in case of any emergency. Even our 3 dogs were panicking cause the places where we let them stay put were beginning to float too. We moved them to a huge floating table and would just hope that they would stay put so the table wouldn't capsize.

It came to a point where we had to just stop rescuing our stuff and just think about our safety. In the last hour of what seemed like an neverending rising of flood, we managed to salvage any food and bring it upstairs. We got a loaf of bread, some canned goods, paper plates and plastic spoons and forks, and some bottles of mineral water. We couldn't open the ref cause it was already floating and all the foods inside were already submerged in muddy flood water too. I was scared that the china cabinet that fell on to the water had broken glass. It's a good thing the water broke the fall and the impact wasn't enough for the plates and glassware to break.

By mid afternoon, the rains stopped and all we could do was look out the window to see the extent of flooding the typhoon has left. Flood was everywhere. We couldn't find a single piece of ground not left submerged outside. Come evening, everything was dark and quiet. With no lights and no people in the streets, our area was rendered as a ghost town. No lights, no sound and just the calmness of the flood waters still evident everywhere. This is the time we were already listening to the radio and found out that a lot of our fellow city residents weren't as lucky as we were. The hardest hit was Provident Village, some, 4 kilometers away from us with the Marikina River in between our village's location. The residents there had to climb their rooftops as the waters totally submerged all ground floors of the houses. We also heard that several villages along the riverbanks have been severely affected. Being a resident of Marikina, I wanted to contact all my friends and relatives to find out if they're ok. But not having any means of contacting them rendered us a desolate island. Concerned friends and relatives were also trying to get hold of us but couldn't. We were just lucky that the rains had stopped and the waters were subsiding little by little.

The next morning (Day 2), the flood waters inside the house were gone. The street still had some flood but only up to the legs. We then saw the aftermath of the typhoon. Everything was drenched and covered with mud. The TV, refrigerator, washer & dryer, cabinets, tables, sofas, clothes several belongings were mostly damaged. Our humungous ref was lying down on the floor as the waters gently laid down the floating ref. Our china cabinet broke in half. Most of the wooden and cardboard cabinets weakened. Utensils and plates were all muddy. The cars' interior were all damp and grounded. Unsaved food was scattered all around the house.

This early morning, heavy rains poured non-stop... and one of the perks living in certain unlucky parts of Marikina is that you can get an instant river right at your doorstep courtesy of the floods. Good thing the rains stopped and the sun appeared. Nevertheless, these flash floods don't subside immediately cause we still have to wait for the rains from our very generous neighbors, Montalban and Antipolo for their residue to rage down the Marikina Valley.

Here are some long-range shots of the floods nearby. You could guess by the bicycles in the pictures how deep the water is. As for the picture with the yellow rails, the left side where the guy is walking is a street, and to the right of the yellow rails is a creek at least 15 feet deep. If there were no rails, you wouldn't know if you were walking on the street or heading towards the deep waterway.

As long as it doesn't rain for the meantime here and in nearby areas, this flood will subside in 1-2 hours. My problem is that I have to wait before I could get out.