Ketsana or Ondoy

The world saw the effect of “Ketsana” while the Philippines suffered from the impact of Ondoy. No idea why the world can’t agree on naming a spade a spade.

It had been raining more or less all week so when I left Saturday morning for a noon meeting in Los Baños, I didn’t think twice about making the trip; after all, I was driving an SUV and that is a bit higher off the ground than other cars. The meeting was to finalize plans for a large fraternity reunion on October 10.

I got to Los Baños, I found I was the only one there for the meeting. Our texted our Treasurer and he informed me that he was stuck in Manila. I texted the president of our sister sorority and she said she was on the way. In the meantime the rain continued .. sometimes a bit heavier. I also texted our caterer and she said she was coming.

More waiting – then a text from the caterer saying she could not make it to the meeting as the water by her house was waste deep. The sorority sister arrived and talked some about our plans, then called it quits to go home.

I got in the car and tried to make my way home. The first part was OK, some flooding but not too much for the SUV. As I got to the Pansol area in the city of Calamba, the water got higher and higher in places … and finally we were told to turn around as the road was not passable.

I went back to Los Baños but got worried when I could not go home. The two dogs were home, locked in the patio, but with only some water and a little food – one of the dogs is a 17.5-year-old ShihTzu who is blind and has almost no hearing. I was concerned. Our gardener visited the house around 4 pm and said the dogs were OK. I also called Noel in Manila to ask for his advice – he was pre-occupied as he had to leave our other car in Makati because of the floods there.

Finally, around 8:30 pm I was told that the road should be passable again. Yes, it was passable but lots of stranded cars and long sections with high water levels and other areas with lots of mud washed down from Mt. Makiling. There were a couple of places where I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me .. to make sure I would not hit the car and also to see where there might be problem areas. Finally, made it home around midnite [normally, with no traffic, it’s a one-hour trip. The dogs were asleep.

Yesterday, I got word from our caterer informing me she had to beg off – her business had suffered too much damage. I hope we can find a replacement caterer on such short notice.

Meanwhile, Noel slowly made his way from Makati to Malate, where he was planning to stay overnite with friends. He took the elevated train and when he got off at the Pedro Gil stop, he found the streets flooded and had to wade to the condo in Malate, on Roxas Blvd – parts of the way had waste-deep water. At the nearby Robinson Mall in Ermita, bangkas were being used to ferry people between high spots. He finally got to the condo after a six-hour trip – normally would take no more than an hour. Noel had to stay in Manila until Monday morning as large parts of the city still had standing water.

We were lucky. A number of our friends got flooded out of their houses only to return to find mud all over their things, and cars that had been standing in deep water.

Some 250 Filipinos lost their lives during the storm and many suffered serious damage to their properties and/or had to evacuate.

Tomorrow, October 1, my oldest brother and his wife arrive for a two-week visit. I keep looking at the weather reports as maybe one or two new typhoons may be headed in our direction and get here late Thursday or maybe Friday – hope the storm track changes. The last time they visited us in Hopatcong, New Jersey, we had 15 inches or rain in one day. Ondoy dropped 16 inches on the greater Manila area in a nine-hour span. I don’t want any new rain records; not interested.

Our home in Silang, Cavite, is in an elevated area – some 1,500 ft – so no worries about flooding.