Journal
Tuesday,Sep 29 2009, 09:32:58 AMA Story About Typhoon Ondoy
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TYPHOON ONDOY
(108 photos)
Copied from a friend's journal...
Let me warn you. This is a long read. Sorry, it's not my best writing, but hopefully it gets the idea across. this is the synopsis of what went down.
First off, our family would like to thank the boys of the Ateneo Rowing Team. It was through their efforts that we were able to reach (and provide food and drinks to) our stranded grandparents and cousins in Provident Village.
Now, on to the story of the longest night of my life.
My grandparents, cousin, and uncle all live in Provident Village. Yes, that is the village you have probably been hearing about all day. My cousin and grandparent's houses are in one little compound, while my uncle and his family live a couple of blocks away.
At 5pm yesterday, my mom started panicking, saying something about one of the household help at my aunt's house almost drowning. Knowing that our grandparents cannot swim, nor could they possibly survive long in the cold should they decide to go up to the roof, spurred me and my sister into action. We gathered towels, put our cellphones and cash into Ziplock bags, donned swimsuits and boardshorts under our windbreakers and zoomed to Robinson's Galleria to buy rafts. With us were 2 of our drivers, Mang Lito and Mang Caloy, and our day-shift guard, Mang Barnobal. We took two SUVs with us in the hopes of getting further in the flood. We managed to buy 3 inflatable rafts from Toys R Us, and had them inflated on the spot. Then off we drove to Marikina.
The idea at that time was to row at the very least, our grandparents to safety, as at the time, water levels were still rising. Aurora was clogged when we got there. The water had reached near the end of the flyover. The sight probably alarmed the heck out of Mang Caloy. He asked my sister to take the wheel, and he and Mang Barnobal would go ahead and try to extract my grandparents. After parking, Mang lito followed into the fray a few minutes later.
We sat and waited in the car for about two hours, text-ing our stranded family members and hoping and praying that the drivers made it. At 7pm, Mang Barnobal returned alone. Caloy was at the "shore" with the rafts. They could not row past the Loyola cemetery. The current there was too strong. Question was, where was Mang Lito? They had not seen him. It was pitch-black on the street and there were panicky people, ususeras, and media everywhere.
At around 8pm, my cousin, Nico and his dad managed to find us amid the confusion. My mom texted me that 4 members of the Ateneo rowing team were on their way with my brother. They detoured to La Mesa Dam to get their oars and life vests and got to us fully-equipped and supplied with food and drink at around 10pm. By that time, Mang Lito had finally managed to get back. He had made it as far as the gate of Provident Village but could not go in because of the current.
We saw 2 rescue boats from the Army being deployed. An hour and a half later, we saw one of them being towed back. It had gotten punctured. WOW. GALING ("great", however sarcastically put). Baka hindi government-issue. (Maybe it's not government issue.)
I only managed to snap one photo using my phone as I was conserving battery. Here's my brother as we were preparing the rafts for attempt number 2.
The rafts we had were too small, so only my brother and one of the boys were able to fit. My sister went along to make sure they didn't take any unnecessary risks. The rest of the boys helped us lug the stuff all the way to waist-high water. Yes, people I waded into waist-high floodwater. Deadma na the stuff floating around. There was poop. And other stuff.
at 12mn, one of the boys came back with a cut on his leg. Now, I had heard of someone dying of leptospirosis contracted by through floodwater with an open wound. So i got kind of paranoid, and decided to take him to the nearest "Emergency Command Post" set up by the government. We had heard on the radio that we could get medical help there. So we made the 2-block walk and found... nothing. There wasn't a fist aid kit in sight. the "Command Post" was just the site where PGMA and Mayor Fernando had a press con. Boy was i pissed. The Officials there were no help. They couldn't even point us to a working faucet. We ended washing the cut up using soap bought from a Petron Convenience Store. :(
by around 2am, the entire group came back. :) happily no one was hurt. Only 1 of 3 rafts made it back though, so all three of our heroes had to squeeze into one raft. 1 raft got punctured by a fallen twig, and Enc applied pressure on it unknowingly. Poof went the first raft. Not Long after, the other raft got punctured by Victoria. She accidentally sat on her partially sheathed cutter. ahahahahah! At least the night was good for some laughs.
here's Victoria's part of the story. what happened from 12mn-2am.
We walked a-ways into the main thoroughfare to conserve energy. we had to careful not to tread on nails. Lots of people were trying to make their way into the city as well. water began from ankle deep fro the flyover to waist deep near Honda. Funny thing, the Filipino. When we deployed, I guess, being a woman, men caught sight of us and started singing cheesy love songs. The flipside of it was we were subjected to a lot of hate. "Pang-mayaman lang yang raft!" (Rafts are for the rich!) and other such nonsense. The currents were pretty strong in the alleys perpendicular to the main thoroughfare. So we had to negotiate those.
Thank God electricity was cut off, because there wires hanging loose and quite close to us. There was a Ford Explorer, L300 van, and other vehicles upturned and on their sides, and in odd angles with wheels sticking out of the water. It was pretty obvious that the owners abandoned them in their haste to escape. When we got into the village we negotiated the rapids, and got stuck in between two cars, and had to sort of wiggle our little crafts through with our hands.
It was pitch-black in the village, so we finally turned on the emergency lights. People started shouting at us to save the kids in Geneva St., well that was we were headed anyway. We tried to negotiate floating debris, one of which was a corpse of an old lady (enc only told me that he had seen her after we'd gotten to terra firma so as not to freak me out). We saw a pregnant girl in a tree, but could not help her because we had by that time punctured our rafts. Made it to our grandparent's house and fed them all. Thank heavens everyone was safe and dry, the Magnus family joined them. Enc had to climb up the framework of the awning to get food and water in. afterwards he tried to patch up one of the rafts. right then we had to make a decision. We had to decide whether or not to proceed to the other street to get to our cousin and aunt. But the raft was beyond repair and we had to turn back.
On our way back, near the main entrance to provident village, we were down to 1 raft. three people in one small orange raft. we had lifevests so i guess the people thought we were professionals. They wailed for us to save them. There was one person who even threatened us, "Tangina may baril ako abot ko kayo." (swear word, I have a gun and I can reach you with it!)
After which we reached the main thoroughfare and waded our way back to the rally point.
Margaret:
As they waded back, then they saw the army mobilizing to go in. Palang (Only now). At 2am. Naunahan sila ng 3 civilians (Beaten by 3 civilians). In kiddie rafts. Grabe (It's too much). Kaloka (Makes me crazy). Army rescue EPIC FAIL. I have asymptoting to ZERO respect for the government now.
We got home at 3am. Tired, dirty, but feeling better knowing our grandparents were fed and watered.
The story of our rescue is not over. We are on our way back to Marikina to help our family and whoever else we can. :)
Friends, the extent of the damage is huge. whatever help you can afford to extend, please please do.
AdMU needs volunteers. Our shop in the Peninsula will be open for drop off of relief goods on Tuesday. :) Clothes, canned food, bread... ANYTHING can help. Will forward it to AdMU.
thanks so very very much.
UPDATE: ATENEO IS ACCEPTING DONATIONS FOR THE VICTIMS OF STORM ONDOY, PREFERABLY COOKED OR READY-TO-EAT FOOD, CLOTHES, MEDICINE, BLANKETS, AND WATER. DONATIONS MAY BE DROPPED OFF AT THE MVP, UNIVERSITY DORM, OR CERVINI LOBBIES. WE ARE ALSO IN NEED OF VOLUNTEERS FOR RELIEF OPERATIONS TODAY. PLEASE BRING BOOTS, SHOVELS, LARGE VEHICLES OR SMALL WATERCRAFT. FOR DONATIONS, INQUIRIES, ETC., PLEASE CONTACT 09088877166