Through the Eye of the Storm

I know that my silence from the blogging world for a couple of weeks is not so much, but I’m going to interrupt the “regular programming” to give way to something I want to share with everyone.

I’m pretty sure that the Philippines is all over the internet and televisions across the globe, but I’d still like to talk about what you may already know for a little while. Please bear with me.

As you may have seen or heard on the news, a typhoon names Ondoy hit the country around 4pm yesterday. I was, to be honest, unaware of this, as I was busy managing the office at that time. I didn’t even know that it was raining until our company’s HR-Assistant and I left around 7pm to look for some giveaways for an upcoming company event. The rain wasn’t pouring so hard then so we braved the rain without umbrellas or some sort of rain gear. It wasn’t until we were finally outside the mall trying to get a ride back to the office that the rain poured so hard. After waiting for a ride for close to an hour, a very kindhearted airport taxi driver drove me and our HR-Assistant back to our office. The rain went on until I got home and until I awoke this morning, around 5am.

That was the scenario last night. Today is a completely different story. I am honestly lost for words at this point. Please bear with me if in case you see typos or even some grammatical errors. My brain isn’t functioning well right now.

To give you a clue as to what has struck my beloved country, take a look at the photos below.

Can you still see people in this photo?

Can you spot the roof of that white car at the back? That car was completely submerged in water before my brother and I went to our grandma's house.

I believe this was somewhere in Kamias, or perhaps Sikatuna, where a lot of the streets were not passable to motorists.

Cars, trucks braving the flood.

Outside my grandma's house. The water was still waist deep that time. My brother was just standing on the gutter.

At my grandma's garage.

As you can see, streets everywhere are flooded. The pictures that I took don’t show how much damage Ondoy has caused because I wasn’t in those areas, and for that I am more than thankful to God. In some areas, the water was neck deep. The water inside my grandma’s was up to their waists; while at my uncle’s, only the roof can be seen. I feel for the rest of my people who may be already feeling hopeless standing on their rooftops waiting for rescue to come. I myself feel hopeless at this very moment. I want to help, but I don’t know how. My mom, sister, aunt and 2year old cousin are still out. I don’t know where they are right now. I cannot reach them anymore. I don’t know how long it will take them to get back home, but I do hope that they are safe wherever they are right now.

The reports on TV are very heartbreaking. People and houses alike have been washed away by the flood. Some have died, while others have nothing left with them except their lives.

I don’t know how to end this post, but I hope that wherever we may be at this time, we could all spend a few minutes of silence for the people who need help, those who have lost their homes, belongings and loved ones.