Blog Post: After Ondoy

09/28/09

After Ondoy

So 2 days after my stupid decision to stay late after work on Saturday, I’m still at the office.

The guards here have a radio, but the gap between my admittedly poor Tagalog skills and that of our tireless AM commentators I understand maybe a word in 5. Enough to get the gist of things, but not enough to satisfy my need to know what is going home in Cainta. I figured I’d try to catch up on my reviews just to have something to do, but I can’t really concentrate on that right now. Figured I’d do something constructive today.

I’ve spent about 36 hours now online, visiting the news sites every half-hour, trying to find out if Ortigas Extension after Manggahan Floodway is clear yet. Check out the video below of the floodgates the afternoon of Saturday the 26th.

In my experience, floods in Cainta and Pasig are funny things. We get small floods all the time, but things are usually back to normal within a couple of hours after it stops raining. Sunday morning, I tried to make it home, thinking that the water along the highway would have receded a bit. I saw several G-Liner buses that ply the Taytay to Quiapo route making their way down Ortigas.

The road was gridlocked. When we hit the Pasig river bridge, the bus driver tried passing through Amang Rodriguez, and down the East Bank Road of Manggahan. The waters coming down from Marikina were less than what you see in the video above and the current had subsided somewhat, but the water was still far up the wall of the man made riverbed, with lots of debris coming through. The flood control team was atop the flood gates trying to pull the biggest pieces from the water. I saw someone’s refrigerator pulled up the metal door of the gates and dumped on a pile of other appliances, bags of garbage and other flotsam.

The East Bank Road was packed as well. At first, the people on the bus were pretty optimistic. They’d been trapped on the vehicle since Saturday as well, and agreed with the driver that the bus could probably make it through what ever we encountered as long as there was a way through the light vehicles. We got as far as the foot of the Manggahan Bridge before everyone saw that this wasn’t a flood that anyone there had had any experience with. Life Homes, the subdivision at the foot of the bridge was under water, hip deep were we were, but easily neck deep as you went further in. Jeeps parked in front of houses on the lower roads were already submerged.

When the driver realized that there was nowhere else for us to go, everyone got down and tried to hoof it home through the waist deep water. After climbing up to the bridge with ropes that had been set up, I was greeted by this scene (top picture pulled from plurk, bottom is one by Joven Cagande):

Word from the bystanders along the bridge was that it got even deeper the farther along Ortigas Extension you went, reaching up to 10 feet at Junction, Cainta. The only thing that could make it out there was the rubber boats that rescuers were using to get people out. The distance from the Floodway to my home in Brookside is easily about 4 kilometers; an hour-long walk for a person who’s in shape. I am not. And this was through at LEAST chest high water in full clothes and with a heavy load. Like most, I wasn’t going to make it through there. At least I could walk back to Ortigas Center.

So now I’m just waiting to hear that the roads are passable again before trying to make it home. Last night I was able to get a message out to my sister that I was all right thanks to our guard here at the office who lent me his phone (my Zombie Phone had finally died after getting wet in my efforts to get home the previous night). She was able to text back that they were all right in the house, but that phone lines were down. She was able to let my friends know that I was all right as well and they called in to the office to let me know that they were, thankfully, ok.

Having been here in the office with power and Internet access the entire weekend, I got to say that for the most part, I saw the best part of the Filipino. You’ll read it when you’re all able to jack in, but with cell service spotty and phone lines down many of us were online using what we could to communicate. There was the KaninLamig’s interactive Google Map that showed rescue teams were people were trapped. Manuel L. Quezon III’s blog which was updated with important contact numbers and info for flood victims and stranded relatives. Despite a few ugly hiccups (like playing the Government Blame Game on GMA News chat or that whole Jaque Bermejos thing) Facebookers, Plurkers, and Tweeters are all out on a mission to help out and it was a trip seeing how the online community emailed, IM’d, plurked, facebooked, twittered and blogged, giving what help they could.

Thanks guys. All of it made sitting here in this office, in this deserted building, worried out of my mind a little easier.

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If you’d like to help, the best way to do so would be to donate to the Philippine Red Cross through SMS: text RED[space]AMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)

Manuel Quezon III has many more other ways to help plus other important information detailed on his blog at http://www.quezon.ph/. If you can’t load the page, use his mirror site: http://mlq3.tumblr.com/post/197426389/how-you-can-help

GMA news has a list of verified relief centers for victims of the Ondoy floods up. Important things needed are clothes and ready-to-eat food: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173288/updated-list-of-verified-relief-centers-for-ondoy-victims

You can also visit there Facebook page where there is a discussion board with helpful stuff like a board on flooded roads: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=9923&post=37696&uid=116724526976#post37696

Radio station, Jam 88.3 helped out a ton of people who only had FM tuners on their cellphones during the worst of it by replacing regular programming with news, updates, and help lines. Today (September 28), they’ll be looking for help for those in need so tune in and donate:

The Philippine Inquirer is also launching a relief drive. Donations in kind, such as instant noodles, canned goods, formula milk, blankets and clothes, are urgently needed. Bring them to the Inquirer office at 1098 Chino Roces Ave. corner Mascardo and Yague Streets, Makati City, or to any of its classified ads branches, or any McDonald’s branch within Metro Manila. For questions and other concerns, please call 8978808 loc. 260 and look for Megi Garcia.

Even Hollywood celebrities are asking their fans to help out. Some concerned parties here have created http://www.philippineaid.com/ so that people in other countries can help out by visiting and donating to the relief efforts via the Chipin widget below.

 

EDIT (9:40 AM 9/28/2009)

I saw this on GMAnews.TV. Brought home everything in a hard way. I recognize everything in the video. I pass there to and from work everyday.