“Sendong”
Friday, December 16, 2011, our Christmas Party, was a cloudy day. My parents told me about Typhoon Sendong’s signal Number 1 warning made by PAGASA the day before. We disregarded the news and continued preparing for our Christmas Party. We had made plans prior to the typhoon warning, Mother Nature had other plans, too.
Saturday, December 17, 2011. I woke up early on that Saturday morning becauseof the really really heavy rains- to say raining cats and dogs was an understatement. It rained like there’s no tomorrow, like someone hosed the place down. The water somehow made a waterfall off our roof. The waters from the mountains and rivers suddenly rose. There was a flash flood starting from the mountains down to the lowlands and coastal towns. The wind was deafening, too. There was no electricity and water. We all were shocked and panicked hearing people talk about deaths, and that some of our neighboring barangays are already flooded.
After lunch, we freaked out when my dad announced that my Tita, who lives two blocks away from our house had their house flooded knee-deep already. So, we hurriedly brought some of our electrical appliances and furniture upstairs in the second floor. In just a matter of minutes, the water entered our front yard. Suddenly water rose knee-deep, too in our own sala. We’re hearing news about dikes being raised twice its size but the flood waters went way above it. In less than an hour’s time, houses in our neighboring barangays and towns were swept away, material possessions have been insignificant, and lives have been lost.
Two hours after, the clouds cleared. There was no rain, no deafening wind anymore. The water current stopped rushing into our house. But the streets and the houses all over the city were filled with flood water. Rich or poor, all people were shocked about what happened. Much was lost in our communities: homes, lives, trees & vegetation, livestock, and even our dreams of a Merry Christmas.
At 10 o’clock in the evening, the streets were already cleared of debris. The waters vanished from the streets as if nothing happened. The roads were so quiet. Our homes though had all the traces of flood, including garbage, silt and sand. Everybody started cleaning their houses despite the very dark atmosphere.
Although there was no electricity, my family and I tried to sleep soundly, thinking that it’s better if we rest than worry and mutter about everything that has happened earlier that day. In a way, we were still fortunate to have our homes intact, our families complete. Elsewhere many were in worse situations. We all were saddened, and dismayed about the tragedy, but as my mom said, “We can’t do anything about it. Nature has its own way of asking for a payback for everything bad that we have done to it.”
Sunday, December 18, 2011, 9 o’clock in the morning, we were still experiencing brownout all over the city, and we are hearing news from our neighbors that the dam where the city got its water supply was broken- which means that we do not have water supply for one week, or at least until the dam is completely fixed.
10:30 in the morning, I’m all alone in my room, watching the people on the streets cleaning, thinking about what happened, about the tragedy, about the people who lost their lives, about how we’d travel to Dumaguete to visit my other sister, attend the prayer vigil in my school, and about my homework! I have homework due this day, and I haven’t started making it yet because of the 3-day-brownout caused by the typhoon Sendong.
Although I feel that I am one of the saddest persons alive now, I can say, too, that I am one of the most blessed and luckiest persons now, because even if we got hit by the typhoon Sendong, the results were not as tragic as those experienced by some. Yes, we experienced the heavy rain, the flash floods, the heavy wind blowing, but, with God’s grace we are all okay unlike those living in the mountains, in the seashores, near rivers and lakes who really had their houses blown off and some of their family members carried away by the water current.
The typhoon Sendong wrecked a lot of houses, took a lot of lives, devastated a lot of families, and broke a lot of hearts. It made me realize how blessed I am for not being in their shoes and feeling bad at the same time that they have to experience the wrath of nature at a time such as this, that they have to grieve over their loved ones instead of celebrating Christmas together with their families.
I guess it’s about time that I do something right and different this season. We’re not that rich to feed all those flood victims, we don’t have that much money to give them new clothes and new houses to live in, my prayers are all that I can offer them, wishing we’d all realize the wrong-doings that we have done, and that everyone will be okay soon.
I know this is just Mother Nature’s call for us to remind us to do good always, especially taking care of the environment. Let us not take this as a punishment, but as a lesson to be etched in our hearts forever. We should all do our part to help preserve this Earth where we live.
Sendong, thank you for the memories and lessons… even though they weren’t so great.
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