Ondoy

September 26, 2009 is probably the worst day of September in the Philippines. a super typhoon hit Metro Manila, Rizal, and Bulacan (i don't know about other areas, but this is where the typhoon really centered its power to destruct). it's rains and floods were unexpected, it redefined the Filipino's (and perhaps also the other people in other tropical countries where there typhoons) definition of what is a "super typhoon.

from what i've heard, the cities of Pasig and Marikina, and the municipality of Cainta were the areas that were badly hit. well, come to think of it, almost 100 of the people who died in typhoon are from Cainta alone. i live in Cainta and i must say that i agree to their conclusion. the water in our subdivision reached over the average height of a person (til waist inside our house). Cainta is known to be prone to floods but Ondoy's floods were really something. back then, we don't need to take our TV, computer and stove upstairs but this time, we did. our next door neighbors even evacuated in our house due to their lack of a 2nd floor.

then the electricity went our by lunch time and we all went frantic since none of our phones were fully charged. our scheduled trip to the wet market and the grocery store was cancelled since none of us can get out of our house. thus, we don't have enough food to eat. cellphone signals weakened until none of us can send text messages or call other people. by afternoon, the rain still continue to fall, and with our current situation, all we can hope and pray was that the water won't continue to rise because we honestly don't have any idea if there are people out there who can rescue us the moment the water reach our 2nd floor. good thing, it didn't reached our 2nd floor and we're still alive and we still have most of our stuffs.

the electricity got back on Tuesday but we still don't have drinkable water. the water from the faucet is even insufficient to clean the house from flood water and mud. the grocery departments on malls were also flooded (only one manage to start operating since Monday).

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo described Ondoy as a "once-in-a-lifetime" typhoon and i was not happy about it even for just a bit. it shows that the Philippine government is not prepared to respond to such calamity to think that she said in her last SONA that our country is prepared against national disasters. but as of the moment, we are continue to appeal to private sectors, organizations, and foreign countries for donations and aids. come to think of it, it seems that TV networks, GMA7 and ABSCBN2 was able to do a lot of relief operations compared to the government itself. actors and actresses who always put image and vanity before everything else forget that they are just made for acting as actors like Richard Gutierrez, Gerald Anderson and Jericho Rosales risks their lives to help people in flooded areas, and actresses like Maxene Magalona and Iya Villania, and host Bianca Gonzalez continue to call for donations and volunteers.

i know that global warming has a lot to do with Ondoy but i also think that the government cannot be free from blames on what has happened. in an article from Time.com, Filipino analysts stated that the national and local government failed to solve the problem of drainage systems in the cities and the likes. well, i agree, because they all spend a lot of time politicalizing themselves and one another. and i hope that the candidates of the upcoming 2010 elections will begin to see the amount of things that they have to take care of before they become elected.

[pictures from Yahoo! News]