Ondoy

Photos and videos of Ondoy's victims have been circulating the net so I'm not even going to try and repost any of them. I've been monitoring the situation since last weekend and up till now, I cannot believe the devastation that Ondoy brought onto Manila. I've seen and experienced a lot of storms while I was growing up in Manila (and living and flood-prone areas) but none comes close to this.

Family-wise, we were one of the lucky ones as my immediate family got off relatively easy. Dad, Mom and my brother didn't even bother leaving the house that morning when they saw that the water in our street was already beginning to rise. The flood did reach our garage but no higher than a few inches. Our house stayed dry and the most that they suffered was the inconvenience of having no electricity.

Some cousins did have a hard time going home from work but given that we have family / relatives all over the place, they all were able to seek shelter and spend the night at a relative's house and didn't have to suffer being stuck in the road for hours and hours on end. An aunt and an uncle got stuck in the office and though they went hungry, they did have water to drink and got to stay warm & dry.

The worst was felt by an aunt and uncle who lives in Malabon, their house, a bungalow which was built on a lot that has been raised high above the street level, got submerged. Mom says that all their cars, furniture and appliances, except for a laptop and a television, were submerged and ruined. But the most nakakahinayang part for me was to hear that their fishes were lost too. They have these huge tropical aquariums with beautiful fishes and they also have this greater than 6 ft long aruwana - I forgot to ask Mom if the latter got lost too.

By the time that Ondoy left, we discovered that the family didn't exactly get off unscathed. We have substantial business losses. Mom keeps saying that she's just thankful that everybody is well but I get the impression that she's still trying to convince herself that all will be well.

It's scary out there.

I don't even know what to say or what to do to comfort my family. All I know is that I'm really thankful that we still have each other. Praise the Lord.