The worst rainy weather since 1967

Friday night Sept. 25, 2009, it was raining already. The rain stopped the following morning just one hour or so, just enough for me to finish preparing my breakfast, then it rained again; not too hard but a persistent one. I have no radio, so I really don't know what it's all about, because there was no wind. Before I left the house, the rain was pouring already. I just picked-up a small umbrella, since I thought it would just subside within an hour. As costomary, that morning, I was heading to the public library on foot to organize my blog that I had been working for a month now. The rain went a bit stronger this time, I halted under an awning of a store. On the other side, people were gathered in front of a store ( Girry's Grill, Congressional brance). Ambulance, police cars, the media (Manila Bulletin, DWIZ) were also there. Turning to my right side, I asked a guy, who was already there watching the scence when I arrived in that store, what the gathering was all about. Form him I learned that a costumer had just been robbed and was shot dead. Well, I was a little bit shaken thinking of the murder. This is not a good day, I thought; then I was on my way despite the constant poring of the rain. I stopped for shelter many times, until I reached a waiting shade, and there, I was kept for more or less four hours, waiting for the wind to slow down. By now, the public library was not far from where I was -- the problem was the rain. At around 10:00 o'clock that morning the day went dimmed; hence, street lights were now glowing to offer visiblity to the motorists. This time, I noticed the water splushing heavily in both sides of vehicles ahead. It was obvious the water had gone deeper this time. Then, not long, the vehicles ahead ceased moving. For a few minutes, there were no traffic flowing on the road; it was just almost an empty road. This scene I witnessed was in the elleptical road around the park they called "Quezon Memorial Circle." It was like that, nothing seemed to move for a while, then cars begun speeding up towards the now stationary vehicles, in a counter flow -- which was of course a traffic violation. More and more, cars follow the same route only to be upset that they couldn't go anywhere. It seemed that some places somewhere along the roads were now submerged under deep water -- impassable. The weather didn't show sign of stopping, and cars just couldn' get passengers anywhere, so people started streaming, parading down the sidewalk. Like others that day, I didn't like the situation I was in, a disruption to my work. Even holidays, these days, I don't like them. How many times after I reached the public library ony to find it close because of a holiday -- and I begun to wonder why this country has created so many of them. At that time, even though it was doubtful the public library was open, but since I really wanted to find it out, if it was so, so I stepped out of the waiting shade under shelter of my frail umbrella, I marched forward. But when I saw how the hikers waded into the water, I gave up my intention and headed back home instead.

The only things I protected from getting wet from the rain were my computer files saved in diskettes and some papers inside a plastic paper arranger. Going home was not easy; I was partly drenched by now; the cold sent shivers to my body making me weak. Because there was no better way to turn to, after I removed my wallet out of my short pants' pocket, I dipped three-fourth of my body, that's up to my chest, into the brown, dirty water. I kept wading, as I laughed heartily of that unsual experience, while cars were floating and starnded by my side. When alas, my feet were back on the unflooded pavement, my sheveing had stopped. Aggressively, I went on exploring the rest of the places near the market. Some people were busy saving their commodities by evacuating them on safer places. What I just saw and experienced was just in the early afternoon. That day, I reached home safely, and I didn't go out anymore. The rain stayed until way up into the night, pouring in varying strength.

In the morning, I strolled outside, there were still the remaining silts and gravels on some of the main roads. In some places, the water has reached to a deep of approximately 2 meters, basing on the telltale remains of garbage trapped in barbed-wire fences. Though in the vicinity where I lived, perhaps the devastition was not so sever, but there are some are greatly affected by the typhoon "Ondoy, " especially those poor families living near the river. I heard deaths, lanslides from the people I met. And I personally saw the anxious faces of those affected by the calamity, huddled in one side of a building. I know how they felt at this time, because I was once became a homeless too. And, it was a joy for me when I heard an old man shouted to a young girl down the bridge apparently gathering metal scraps to sell, "It's already nootime! Leave that one, it will do you nothing; go to the barangay! There's food there! Looking on the newspapers displayed in the sidewalks, Manila Bulletin describe the typhoon as the worst rainy weather since 1967.