Reliving the Ondoy tragedy
By TheAdvocate
@TheAdvocate (2392)
Philippines
September 22, 2010 6:50am CST
On Sunday we will mark the first year since Ondoy came to visit. My family and I were one of the unlucky victims of this typhoon. Some of you may remember that Ondoy was not the first time that Provident Village was flooded. We experience flooding almost every 10 years, but Ondoy was the most terrible of them all. We did not expect it to be that high - around 25 feet of mud water. In fact, if not for my younger brother's insistence that we move some of our things to higher grounds, we would have lost everything. We stayed on the roof overnight until the water subsided.
Anybody else a victim of Ondoy? Care to share your experience that day? What lessons did you learn from that tragedy?
2 people like this
6 responses
@se7enthbird (8307)
• Philippines
23 Sep 10
like you i am from marikina too. my mother's house was flooded up to the roof and we did not save anything. all the pictures since we were kids, and documents are all gone. my mother is half paralyzed so it was very hard for them to get up to the roof. my mother's house is two blocks away from the river but this was the first time the river over flowed. in our apartment inside the house was up to my nape only but if we go outside it is around 20-25 feet too. my wife is planning to cook pansit bihon on the said anniversary of ondoy, it is for thanking the Lord that even after a storm like that we are still alive. there are a lot of things that i've learned so now we are much more ready than before. of course we dont like this to happen again but it is better ready than not.
@se7enthbird (8307)
• Philippines
23 Sep 10
after ondoy my mother was confined at the hospital for infection because her diapers was filled with dirty flood water when they are at the roof. it was horrible trying to think of it, but then again we still need to thank the Lord that we are still lucky enough that we are alive. this is all unexpected and of course when it rains for 30 mins that is what we think about... it might be another ondoy. its hard to sleep when the rain is pouring hard. 
@TheAdvocate (2392)
• Philippines
30 Sep 10
I am sorry about your mother. Here in Provident, I heard a lot of stories about how the old, paralyzed and even pregnant women climbed to higher grounds or even swam flood waters. My mother's room is in the first floor, and so until now I shudder at the thought of my mother trapped in her room as a lot of what happened in fatalities here. Luckily, we are all so OC that we did not even think of wading through the flood. I think this was what saved my family.
Like you I also become restless when rain pours down. I keep checking my mother's room when it rains!
@uchihaseymour (1025)
• American Samoa
2 Oct 10
might as well the government should prepare for future disasters that could happen~ :|
@TheAdvocate (2392)
• Philippines
2 Oct 10
In fairness, the government has been all over the place trying to address the issues that we faced during Ondoy. Here in Marikina, I was relived that the government has just set-up an early alarm system. If the water hits a certain height, an alarm will be sounded and we should all evacuate. This was one of the important things missing that time and it would have saved lives. I know it will be some time before the government will be adequately prepared but at least we are on our way there.
By the way, a short reply will not let you earn here.
@LetranKnight25 (33121)
• Philippines
23 Sep 10
Hello Advocate,
This made me realized how blessed we are here in cavite, that none of us experienced what you experienced. but i had to admit it was one of the scariest times, but i made sure i try not to panicked during that storm.
But you are still blessed to be alive. what's the use of saving materials if you lose you're loved ones on the flood, or you? lives are more important than things if we think it over deeply. you can slowly regain what you have lost,maybe not the old ones, but you can regain them in time.
I believe preparedness has always been priority in preparing for any disaster.
But i think it's for the Government to make HUGE TUNNELS to counter these floods. like the ones i watched in discovery channel in Japan.
otherwise, this will happen again.....
@jet2r0cks (190)
• Philippines
22 Sep 10
I can't say that my family and I were victims, but we were definitely unlucky. I remember waking up early cause I had to go to school that day. I was gonna meet with my boyfriend and some friends after I finish taking care of stuff in school. On the way I noticed that it just wouldn't stop raining, but I didn't worry then cause I was focused on what I had to do at school, cause I had to submit some papers and it was already the deadline. Since it didn't stop raining, my boyfriend and I decided to not meet anymore.
After taking care of my school stuff I wanted to go home immediately, but it was still raining and the school was already flooded. I was very surprised to see that the water was so high cause that never happened at school before. Getting out of school was difficult, so I decided to wait at a nearby net cafe when my mom called and told me to go to their office immediately. The usual 30 minute trip became 2 hours, cause there were a lot of people were at the MRT and I had to stand in line for a long time. As I stood in line I saw that there weren't a lot of cars on the road, cause the water was so high. That's when I started to get worried.
Finally, I was able to get to my parents office. I thought we were gonna go home immediately, but my parents said we can't cause they traffic was really bad and they weren't letting people go through the road we usually take on our way home. One of my cousins who lived nearby tried to go home, but he was stuck on the road since he left, so we decided to stay at the office even though we all wanted to go home cause my brother was left alone at our house. Fortunately, we live at a really high place so there wasn't any flood near our home, but there wasn't any electricity and we couldn't contact my brother regularly. It wasn't so bad staying at the office cause we had electricity and internet there and I was able to contact my boyfriend through chat.
The next morning we tried to go home only to go back to the office after 8 hours of being stuck on the road __
@lilmisfit23 (386)
• Philippines
22 Sep 10
I am somewhat uneasy about the coming September 26 because it brings back bad memories. Me and my family were also a victim of Ondoy. We were the unfortunate ones that had our house flooded that even the roof of our house was not visible. That's how deep the flood was in our area. I remember that we have to stay at my mother's friend's house for two days until the flood has gone down. We've saved nothing, all our valuables were left submerged in our haste to save our own lives. It was really a traumatic experience that until now when I see that the rain is pouring outside, I can't help but worry that there may be another flood again.
From my experiences on Ondoy, I learned to be more prepared and be more aware of my surroundings. Our community has also made the effort in cleaning creeks, recycling garbages and encouraging people to minimize waste so that we can somehow help prevent another similar flooding to happen again.
@BOROTOTOY (58)
•
22 Sep 10
ondoy...last year...i was about to leave for a ride to divisoria, but in the office i finished my work first and forget that the time was running fast. and i told myself not to proceed and do my marketing the next day. after some hours, they shown in the news what had happened, and it was scary....god saved me from that flood. for many we should care about prayers, about our relationship with god.
