*Cross-posted at my multiply [link]


It didn't take a week, or even days before the clean, dry streets of Marikina, Pasig, Cainta and Antipolo cities were enveloped by raging rain water that turned into a horrible, uncontrollable, rampant flood. How it happened, no Filipino expected it nor wished for it.


It left not only homeless families but also mourning people who lost everything they worked hard for in an instant - quick and unexpected.


It began during the early hours of September 26 2009; everyone knew that there was already something off with the hard, pouring rain pounding the concrete floor and roofs. Gradually, the rain waters got more violent until rivers of different cities started filling up - really REALLY fast. As quick as the pouring rain, people had began shuffling - uneasy, surprised then terrified.


Waters had began entering homes when it shouldn't.


Later afternoon that the flood reached knee-length, then waist-length then it was already high enough to drown a living person. People, as I understood when listening to the battery-operated radio, climbed on their second floors then went even higher - on their rooftops. So easily, their homes were eaten alive by the rampant, brown water.


What was even worse, some families were separated before and during the flood; children who were over their friends' for academic-purposes, mothers who stayed at home, fathers who attended work were not excepted from being trapped inside the place they were currently in.


The evening felt like it was the longest night (adding more to the fact that the electricity was out to prevent any casualty that can root from it), like living Hell to some who stayed up on their roof - cold, hungry and frightened until morning. They wanted help, needed help. Some prayed, while the others cried. The authorities were quick on their feet however had difficulty because of the flood, the harsh rain and the chaos that came about.


Many died, many drowned; a young man, a kid, a lady, an old one - too many to mention and to mourn for and to pray for.


Then came the aftermath; the mess that the typhoon left the battered cities helpless - waters inside small homes, mud that covered the streets, destroyed properties, garbage everywhere, ruins and floating corpses of both man and animal.


Said corpses piled up at one corner, bloated and lifeless.


Many worth of sales and properties now left destroyed. Cars that were made sturdy and hard now laid on its side on sidewalks like little toys. Broken shards scattered. The trees and plants still stood erect but were covered with soil.


Soil and mud were really everywhere. Even garbage that came from who-knows-where.


This one-day Hell that would forever traumatize some of our Filipino brother and sisters will remain in-printed in history as the most horrifying storm that shook the nation after 20 years.


Let us pray for those brave soul who pursued in saving the lives of others in exchange for theirs, for those family who lost their homes and everything, for the animals who weren't able to save themselves and for the individuals who want to get back on their feet and move forward. Hand-in-hand, let us help ourselves to stand on our own legs once again - the Filipino way, the Bayanihan way. - Jiandra Alda "Setsuna" Manlangit


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Photos are here: [link]


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Date: 10.27.09 (Sunday)
Place: Marikina - Katipunan street, Industrial Valley, Bayan-Bayanan, Barangka, Marikina River and Provident Villages (facade), Philippines
Taken by: Setsuna * me

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My family and I lived in Marikina City, see? That is why I have these photos. We were very fortunate that the flood didn't reach our street but it did to the others.


The sight of my city is really heart-breaking, especially that the once order enforced for it is broken. The chaos at Bayan is something I'm not used to. Then the garbage, then the quietness of the town that seemed to be weeping silently.


I really pray for the restoration of every city that is affected by the Bagyong Ondoy.