reliving typhoon ondoy's wrath

Exactly a month ago, Filipinos experienced the most destructive typhoon in the country. Typhoon Ondoy's wrath was unbelievable as it damaged hundreds of millions of properties. Families lost their homes, furnitures, letters and photos of valued memories. Some, in a tragic way, even lost their kins and loved ones. Both the rich and the poor were left devasted. My husband and I were not spared from it.


What seemed like a typical rainy Saturday morning of September 26 turned out to be truly disturbing as the water went up on our street. We've seen the muddy water quickly rise up as we monitored on the terrace of our building. About 6 hours of heavy rains, the 1st floor units on our building were already submerged. Seeing just the roofs of one-storey houses on our street, we knew the muddy flood water reached a record of 7-8 feet.


We still consider ourselves lucky since the unit we are renting is at the 3rd floor. Except for some clothes left at the laundromat in the same subdivision, all our valuables were left dry. Our only struggle was being stranded on our building for 3 days without electricity, unable to leave since our subdivision was still submerged. On the 4th day of typhoon Ondoy's wrath, with flood just ankle-deep, my in-laws rescued us in their black Mitsubishi Adventure. For about 10 days, we stayed with them safely in Novaliches.

Our country is no stranger to typhoons. But typhoon Ondoy's wrath is not an act of God. It was a nasty price we had to pay for exploiting and abusing nature. Ondoy slapped us with the bitter truth of how our government has neglected an effective implementation of urban planning. It is disheartening we Filipinos have to learn our lesson the devastating way.

View more photos HERE.

*I sadly lost interest in my internet life for a month. If you witnessed typhoon Ondoy first-hand, you would understand me. After watching houses submerged in water, seeing countless of mud-covered properties being dried up on streets days after is an even more depressing sight. It made me appreciate the basic necessities in life. It made me hold on to memories more. It made me highly value my loved ones. In essence, the heartbreaking experience made me love and embrace the simplicity of life.