Marikina After Habagat

One of the things Sweetie and I worry about whenever it rains is our parents. Both our parents live in houses that flood whenever there's heavy rains. My Mom was lucky last week because it surprisingly did not flood in her house. My in-laws though had knee-deep water flood their house in Marikina.

We headed to Marikina last Saturday to check on my in-laws and find out what happened to Tito Bert, my 90-year old uncle who's a Typhoon Ondoy survivor. We went to my in-laws house first to check how they were. They were in good spirits, but tired from having to clean the house twice. House-cleaning after a flood is tasking. It doesn't matter whether you just have an inch of water, knee deep or chest deep since the floor area you have to clean would just be the same. Typhoon Ondoy cleared out most of my stuff and that's why I've been trying to live with less stuff eversince.

After visiting my in-laws we went to check on my cousins. They were still cleaning the house and drying stuff when we arrived with help from some kind-hearted friends. They said that they stayed at their neighbor's house (who had a second floor) when the water started to rise. When the water went down a bit they waded through water to the village's entrance so my uncle could be picked up by my aunt. He's staying with her for a few weeks.

Marikina City government did a good job of cleaning up (although I know a few schools/areas were still being cleaned), much, much better than after Typhoon Ondoy. I took some photos while in transit and here's what I got -

Marcos Highway.

A bank dries out its chairs.

Clean-up.

Some friends said that this wasn't due to the flood.

Sofa drying.

Subdued river.

Provident Village.

Back to normal at the entrance of Provident Village.

Sweetie said this structure goes under water whenever the water rises.

Tranquil river that day.

Water gauge.

Saw this line of houses on CNN. Reporters couldn't go beyond it because of the flood.

Philippine Flooding

It’s been a week since I finished my 30-day blogging challenge. I completed it and had thought I’d be able to blog every day after. As usual more important things occupied my time and I’m writing this post offline while waiting to board the plane home. I thought my flight out of Manila was going to be cancelled last Monday because it was raining to hard on Sunday evening. I was glad that most of my colleagues had left on Saturday and Sunday. Most of them have not experienced our version of thunder storms and I didn’t want them to be traumatized.

I woke up at around 4:30 in the morning on Monday and had no problems with my flight since it stopped raining. It started pouring just before I boarded the plane. I felt that the sky was commiserating with me – sad that I was leaving home again. I was pretty concerned though that the rains seemed to be coming down non-stop and I feared that it would cause wide-spread flooding. I guess I got that sixth sense on floods after experiencing Typhoon Ondoy. I was monitoring Dr. Mahar Lagmay’s tweets and checking Project NOAH often to see how things were progressing.

By Tuesday morning the situation had gone worse and I got a ping from government for help in putting information together. By noon a group of volunteers got in touch with me to help and the Google Crisis Response team had offered to help. It was a long day. Information had to be put together, shelters/donation centers/rescue efforts mapped. Lots of going back and forth across different time zones and finally the page was up by midnight.

http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/2012-08-philippines-flood.html

The effort was made successful by tireless volunteers "Team Showercap" -- Ka Edong, JP Loh, Arnold Gamboa, Ros Juan and many, many others across the country  -- the Google Developer Group, Google Business Group, Google Geo Advocates, RERs and mappers and with help and encouragement from MLQ3 and PCDSPO who helped us get data. (There was so many, I hope I did not leave out anyone). Indeed the Filipino bayanihan and “waterproof spirit” has once again shown the best of our culture. The initiative was also proof that all the mapping efforts of the local community is very useful. The time you have volunteered have come to good use.

Some will probably ask why I continue to do this – mind you it’s very stressful. I think information is key to prevent lives from being lost, to save lives and to find our loved ones in times of distress. I cannot personally volunteer to help physically because (1) I’m oftentimes far away and (2) I might be the one needing rescue if I help in physically-demanding efforts (hehe).