Mid-shift ends my day around 10pm. Rain was pouring so I decided to wait it out till 11. Since it didn't stop, I decided to go home.
Sept 26 Saturday
Morning, it was still raining hard. By lunch the village road was starting to flood as expected. Figuring the most it will be like ankle deep in theapartment, there's seem no sign to hurry or worry.
Around lunch, the flood started to enter the house. Feeling it won't beat the last highest record I've experienced indoors of ankle high, we just watched what happened.
And then a few hours later it suddenly rose up, from touching the bottom of the sofa set, then covering it. We started to scamper for belongings piling them up as on furniture. The main concern was the ref. We transferred it from the low level kitchen to the dining. Then the water starts to hit knee high inside. Told Uly to bring the LCD monitor, the PC, and other electronics up the 2nd floor. Papa's 2 drawer filing cabinet was already submerged up to the bottom drawer. When we decided to take out the contents of the top drawer and placed it just on top of the steel cabinet. No sooner that we finished placing the files on top, the water was reaching the file folders. It was like placing an item a step at a time everytime on a staircase.
When it reached the waist level, we decided to stay at the second floor. Earlier on, before the water reached the power outlets, I've already switched off the main fusebox. We watched as the staircase steps dissapeard one level at a time. By then I asked Lene to pack up our clothes and get ready for the worse.
I started to pull out the aircon unit so we can have a ready escape route just in case it gets any higher. Uly was wondering why I was doing it, I guess he started to feel the seriousness of the situation.
The rain was still pouring on and off. And then the water reached its peak, around 2 feet from the ceiling of the 1st floor.
Our neighbor Kuya Bodjie (w/ the yellow hummer truck) took out his kiddie pool and started paddling around and helping out some neighbors. They started to bring the kids and mommies to units with 3 floors.
Then we decided to transfer the kids and mama and lene to Presidente's house for safety. Kuya Bodjie floated Uly first so he can be there if Zoe goes there alone. Then Zoe and Lene and then Mama was last. I stayed to guard the apartment.
Nightfall, It was dark and still raining. Listening to the radio, other people had it even worse. In Marikina, people stuck in rooftops. Everytime it rains I feel for them, the cold, the hunger, the fear.
After all the excitment. I realized I haven't eaten since breakfast. We saved the water dispenser and a plate of fried fish. That's it. I just thought "oh, this will subside tomorrow morning and I can buy something to eat by then"-- how wrong I was.
Sept 27 Sunday
The next morning, there was no more rainfall but the water was still up to the ceiling. Then it kicks in, I'm hungry. No food, the stove's flooded. Not even a junk food around. Then reports start coming in, The main road (Felix Ave./Imelda) outside at Cypress/Country homes /Shell was waist deep. The wet market at Junction was flooded, all possible stores are flooded. The whole of Cainta was submerged. Where the hell are you going to buy food?
Bayanihan starts to run in the community. The neighbors with meat and produce for trade started selling their stocks to others since there were no refrigiration. Noticing that some didn't have a way to cook, they started cooking it to adobo to dispose of. A nice neighbor cook a big vat of lugaw (porridge) and gave it everyone.
No one can do anything at this point. The water was high, dirty and muddy. And reports of dead bodies floating just outside the compound make it worse. I didn't go down to the flood for sanitary reasons. I won't risk an accident and cut myself then get waterborne diseases. I'll wait till it's around knee deep. With my poor eyesight, I'm more useful dry than wet and losing my glasses in the water.
Eventually, they threw me some food. I couldn't belive I ate liver and tuyo and it felt like a high end restaurant meal. I felt It could be the last time I'm eating a cooked meal as it started to occur to me that this could linger on...
Stuck there in our room on the 2nd floor, the only other place I can go is to the other room and on the window roof tile to check out the flood.
Around 3 pm, the flood went down to thigh high. Observing it, the speed was around 1 feet every 2.5 hours. Slowly painfully. At this point I can go down and move stuff around to clear a pathway. Upon reaching the main door, I couldn't open it. The door possibly swelled and got stuck. Again, kuya Bodjie helping me out from the outside by kicking the door open. Now I can't close the door. The fear of critters coming in rather that robbers was on my mind.
At around midnight, Papa Noel came home, he said he waded through waist high floods from Sta. Lucia and took half a day to get home.
Sept 28, Monday
Waking at 6am, the water subsided to street level, a few more hours it was gone. Left was all mud. Then people started to pick-up their lives and cleaning began.
Thankful to be alive and well.
At around 3 pm Kuya Jong came and brought some goods and picked us up to evacuate the kids and mama to Sucat temporarily.
So, Cainta, Marikina and the surrounding areas are known for being flood prone areas. So why were there no contingencies to handle this? Baranggay Manggahan had small bancas why is the rest of Rizal not capable of having these? Had to wait for whatever the national government had to help out, which is not a lot. Where's the taxpayer's money? Sigh
