Pya Salvanera: Maring PH

And it was DEJA VU.

It was an uneasy Sunday night when wrathful strikes of rain woke me up at 2AM. For some reason, I never peek at the windows at night especially when I'm alone in the room. So I closed my eyes again but I had been failing numerous times in getting back to sleep. My conscious daydream had made me plot a gameplan on how to go home safely after office because of the apparent heavy rainfall within the day. Still, that didn't make me sleepy.

As the rain had been pouring harder, it came to my decision not to go to office anymore. In my mind, still in my eyes closed, I had been composing my message of permission to leave to my boss, planning to tell her that the way outside our subdivision is already flooded. And I'm sure of that because a river nearby usually overflows every heavy down pour, causing it to flood our subdivision entrance. After few hours, my alarm had already buzzed, and I eventually killed the procrastination in me as I decided to go to work instead. I looked downstairs to check if Papa had been dressing up for work but I heard no sound from their room. So I freshened up in case we would pursue going to work. I just picked the most comfortable polo-dress I have in my closet so I can be ready to fight for my life and accept the challenges of long queues in MRT and getting stranded in some random places when I get home. Then I decided to peek at the window to check what's going on.

It came to my surprise that the flood has already reached the entire subdivision, and that's a first in the entire 7 years of our stay here. I knocked the door of my parents' room to alarm them about the outside's situation. Papa saw me in my office dress and told me "aba, anak hindi na tayo papasok", I rushed back to my room to change into shirt and shorts as Papa had my go-signal that we were not going to work anymore. I finally had to send a message to my boss, altering the saved composition in my head since the usual flood in the subdivision entrance has already reached outside our house. We turned on the TV for news and I charged all my gadgets for possible blackout. All we could do was to wait if the water gets inside the house. Thanks be to GOD, our house is almost 3ft high away from the normal ground, but still, it was already few inches away from our garage.

We thought of evacuating to other place, but our only way out to the town proper had been flooded by thick mud, as the breakwater from the river collapsed last year (and still no action has been taking place). So we were trapped in our homes, and we could really do nothing but to wait. Good thing Mama has food stocks in the pantry. Though limited, it was an another thing to thank GOD for. We had sopas for lunch, and we were able to share some to our neighbors as well.

Few hours later, thank heavens as the flood had subsided. However, it left large muddy lumps scattered on the ground. If we let it dry, it would be difficult to shove it off. Good thing we have good neighbors to help us in the clearing operations.

Since the flood came from the river, they were able to salvage several fish. It was somehow a blessing in disguise, as it offers other families dinner for tonight. One of our teenage neighbors who helped us hoarded all the fish they had caught and brought it home. After few hours, our place is now mud free. But we are still stuck at home as the way out to the town proper remained impassable due to knee-high mud. We had a power shortage for more than 24 hours, so we were really deprived of the latest news. Good thing we had a spare battery to operate an AM Radio (the radio I had in my old dorm during college days). That was the time we realized that we are still blessed to experience such a minimal flood. Several homes in Noveleta and other towns were flooded, causing the entire province of Cavite to be placed under the state of calamity. Since we had no way out for two days straight, we could do nothing but to pray for their safety.

As of the moment, the exit way to the town proper has been already cleared. But there are still families who are staying in Noveleta Public Market as our evacuation center. More families are also stuck in different evacuation centers across Luzon who cannot go back to their homes yet, and I continue to pray for them, but we also solicit for your prayers, as our town has been affected the most by Maring and Habagat.

Here are my snippets of MaringPH taken outside our house. (Recorded using iPhone, Edited using iMovie default template)