Keep safe and dry

I didn't know what I was going to be dealing with when I woke up to a rather rainy Saturday morning. I got some weekend articles up and even watched an episode of House before finally getting ready for the Candy Fair. Manu left for work and Nior left for Ateneo just minutes before I was ready to go. Then as I made my way downstairs, I saw that water had already come in our house.

Now this isn't something strange to me. Whenever the rain pours non-stop, we're bound to get flooded in. But I never knew it could reach this magnitude. The water rose so fast and we were completely caught off-guard. I didn't even know there was a storm coming. The first few steps were okay. We were calm and I actually still thought I could leave the house when the floodwater subsides.



Then it reached our first floor landing. I could no longer see the door to my kuya's bedroom. That scared me. I prayed the rosary maybe four times continuously. I looked out the window and our neighbor's house was almost 3/4 submerged. Kuya Mong and I already started looking for openings we could swim out through in case we needed to. We got worried because Daddy would have trouble getting out. We just prayed and prayed for the rain to stop so that the water would subside.


The old couple living across us were finally rescued by some people around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I watched as people with an inflatable boat tried to save stranded people across our house.

At around 6pm, the water finally started to subside. This after watching some of Kuya Mong's shoes float around just inches from the ceiling of our first floor. We talked to our household help through the window (they stayed on the second floor of their quarters at the back of our house) and saw the refrigerators floating in the water. By 8pm, the water had completely gone down and we were able to get some food (leftover rice and two cans of tuna afritada). Dad was already hungry at 11am and we had nothing to feed him but 1/4 a bag of Ruffles and some Ricola from my bag. Manu and Nior were also finally able to come home. Nior brought home some food, which we will probably share for breakfast this morning.

I am so grateful that my family is safe. I hope that everyone who got stranded are safe now. Still waiting for word from people in Brookside Hills, Cainta. My best friend's family lives there and she says she hasn't heard from them since 2pm yesterday. If anyone knows the situation there, please leave a comment.

If you want to help, there are ways you can. Let's do our part to help the victims of this massive flood.