Catastrophic!

Just like any other rain shower that manifested in recent months, it reportedly started as an ordinary tropical depression, which was just expected to breeze through the metro. Having been exposed to heavy rains for months, residents of Metro Manila on Friday reportedly were not aware of the danger and went about their daily activities.

When the tropical depression intensified into a storm Friday afternoon, people started to get annoyed— with the traffic and the over crowded public transportations, who wouldn’t be? It’s a Friday night, people were itching to get home to start their much awaited weekend. Indeed, people were unprepared for the brewing disaster that would come.

It was around six in the afternoon Friday here when my mom called me through my videophone. (It’s a device connected to an Internet cable, sort of like magic jack but it is a phone in itself and it has its own camera.) It was nine in the morning in the Philippines, Saturday. The connection was definitely bad, the line kept on fluctuating and the images kept on freezing. There was also a certain murkiness in the background. My mom managed to tell me that there was a storm before their Internet got busted.

3 p.m. Philippine time

I contacted my mom through her cellphone to check on things before I go to bed. It was already midnight here in the US.

She was already on her stress mode when she told me that my pregnant sister-in-law got stranded in Makati where she said floodwaters was already 6-inch deep inside her car. Disbelief and shock were both swimming in my head. I had never heard of flooding in the central district of Makati, much so of a flood that deep that would actually immobilize the car.

She also went on telling me how high the water was in other parts of the metro and how hard the rain was still pouring.

But wait, where in the world was my dad?! My mom went from being in distress to totally aggravated and in panic mode. She was yelling (indirectly but still at me) when she said she couldn’t reach him. His cellphone was off and all the numbers of Philippine Airlines were, (surprise!), busted. So did he or did he not fly out?

Goodbye sleep.

I can only imagine how much worse and horrifying the experiences of others were— those who were directly affected by the events that were brought about by that blasted “Ondoy”.

To those of us in foreign lands, we are indeed fortunate to be spared from the catastrophe. Most of us though, have homes, families and friends who were gravely affected by the ordeal.

No matter where we are in the world, our roots still belong to the Philippines. We can’t help but worry and be deeply saddened especially when we hear stories of deaths, floating bodies, wrecked homes and missing loved ones; see photos of familiar places submerged in dark water, countrymen drenched with mud and children lamenting over the chaos that surround them.

The heroes

“I wish I may, I wish I might, let JR be my neighbor tonight.”

I commend Gerald Anderson and his brother for helping his neighbors. They braved the bacteria-infested floodwater, which by the way might also have been a haven of snakes and crocodiles, to check their neighbors’ safety.

He has an advantage though, he is a star. His heroism was noticed immediately.

But what about the others? Have any of you watched the UERM video? That nameless guy who also risked his life when he jumped from the building to help a woman who was stuck on top of her car that was being swept away by the strong currents of the flood.

Let us not forget the soldiers, police officers and fire fighters who are persevering in the continuing rescue and relief operations. There are still a lot of good souls out there and because of them, the world becomes not so bad to live in.

Unfortunately, there are imbeciles too— those who rejoice over others’ suffering and actually tweet about it too! Heartless indeed. Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinions but no one has any right to decide on another’s fate. No one has a right to wish for another person’s sorrow. No one has a right to wish for another’s death.

We can fire off insults, we can fire off curses, we can fire off whatever we want to fire off. What purpose will it serve though? The damage has been done— a terrifying and seemingly irreparable ruin.

What’s left to do now is to pick up the pieces. It will not be easy but everything would have to start somewhere. Filipinos will once again rise from this. Hey, if this disaster already brought together ABS-CBN and GMA, what else could we not accomplish?!

Anne de Jesus Portugal now resides in Newark, California and is a former writer for abs-cbnNEWS.com