#ketsana

Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) which crossed Central Luzon in September 2009, dumped more than 300 millimeters of rain in 6 hours while Typhoon Carina (GAEMI) -enhanced Habagat generated 207 millimeters of rain over the course of 6 hours. Ondoy dumped a month’s worth of rain in Metro Manila in one day.

Ketsana duet with Khitvongsay: Nquirr Sao Kham Nguam - Lamvong Lao

  God bless us all.  God bless the Philippines. 

Stuck in the bridge then, I talked to a UST student who was then also stuck on his way down to his Antipolo home. He said that no jeepneys passed by the highway, causing him unable to go home and stayed on that area for some time. Apparently, that place where he was standing by was the eastbound jeepney terminal/stop of SM Marikina. Ok, speaking of the mall. SM Marikina’s basement floors were terribly submerged to the raging water currents of the Marikina River. And in fact, the level of its water reached as high as 23 meters below its main base, which levels to the neck portion of the statue lying beside Marikina River Park at the Sta. Elena area. Catastrophic indeed, huh? Back to my story, I almost can’t cross the bridge by due to the massive rainfall and the cold weather during that day, I waited for some time for the rain to hopefully stop, but it did not though. 2 p.m. I had the courage to cross the Marcos Bridge since it is almost cleared out. No vehicle from the Metropolitan bounding to the eastern side passing then. Perhaps blame it to the flooded highways of Aurora Boulevard. Only to found out that a lot of people standing by beside the LRT’s foundation, watching the disastrous flood submerging every low-floor and low-lying structure and vehicles submerged. Even the fire truck of the Barangay didn’t survived that though the funny thing is that even if that lied some few inches under-flood, its siren ranged up. And apparently, my cellphone had ranged either. It’s my sister, asking me not to go home instead because the flood had already made things unpassable for me. Well, not wondering. On the other side, we personally saw what the news had been bringing up to those fortunate audiences whom were lucky that their properties and lives hadn’t been destructed by the typhoon. At Barangka, Marikina City, residences trapped on their second and third floor houses relied on their household materials to save them. “Batya” and a matching rope to cross among the raging current of flood bounding to the river. Whether it’s a kid, an adult or even their pet dog was the ones who used to ride in this action-packed seeming incident. But as my primary concern goes, I need to cross by that deep green stream badly to secure myself. With 3 companions whom were on the same tracked we ran across Marcos Highway to get to Monte Vista’s Highway gate. Luckily we’re fortunate to enter then. We hit the main street only to found out that it is flooded at the other end. We searched for another opening but the passage to Major Dizon submerged even, but only on the latter portion of the said street. I took the risk to cross then, along the 4 of us. And good thing it’s only waist deep. I managed to get past by the flood. I am now at the car wash establishment where my cousin’s friend owns. The place where my father had been asking me to say instead should I’m on my way home then. But since my pocket had now been emptied and I exhausted my remaining money, hunger was my next problem. Good thing, my aunt was there but she too, hadn’t left much money. Luckily for us, we met a stranger whom fed us. He was working at a salon located in a mall near Rizal, and had stranded too on his way to his house. Since my network had its own problem in terms of signal, I agreed to let him use my phone for a while as we contact our relatives. That night made me sleepless, literally. I can’t really get one of it due to a lot of people whom were sleepless and some people whom were badly seeking one. Even sleeping while sitting doesn’t work, so was lying in the table. My body was almost chillin’ to coldness of the rain and temperature. My clothes had been soaked up, from my jacket to the underwear, and even when I was given extra clothes by my cousin’s friend to wear. Some military members attempted to penetrate the soaked street but their amphibian vehicle can’t able to pas it through due to the electricity wires that had been sunk to the floodwater. A news team from a network covers up shortly, took video footages and left quickly. People had been stranded, waiting and restless for the entire period. It was 3 a.m. of September 27, 2009 when the flood went gone for good, but the mud left in that catastrophe was high as half-feet deep. As for me, I still managed to have a short nap between 2:30 to 3:00 a.m. and 3:30 to 4:30 in the morning. I went out and go home with still bare-footed. The short trip took a long time for me as I can’t manage to walk the usual way due to thick mud. On the way home I saw houses wrecked up, wooden furniture crashed, cars on top of another, wires misaligned to its respective pole connection, piece of wood turned into bridges between the houses in the neighborhood. It was either a matchbox being messed up and an almost Atlantis look-alike environment. By 5:00 a.m. I arrived at our place and saw my uncle and, aunt and two older sisters coming down of the house. My sister’s ex-boyfriend helped out during the disaster. And as I walked inside, it was really, a really big mess. It took some few weeks to fix and clean things up. Who could have ever thought that a heavy rainfall that lasted for almost entire day period would bring a hell-like disaster to a lot of residences not just in Marikina City, but around the Central areas of Northern Philippines as well? Pasig City had been badly damaged, so as the municipality of Cainta in Rizal? Even my other place in San Ildefonso, Bulacan didn’t survived Ondoy’s wrath though thank God it went only to waist-depth flood water level. In Valenzuela exit of the North Luzon Expressway, a lot of vehicles had been submerged to the extent that its level was at the bottom tip of the bus’ windows? Quezon Boulevard Underpass was also submerged and turned into a swimming pool for the kids living under privileged despite that its depth was around 4.5 meters? My classmate all the way from Taguig got stranded and had to ride another vehicle on his way to school while the others had swam through España Blvd. in Manila only to make it to the class. Only on her way home at Bulacan, she and her other classmates had to get stranded at the bus terminal only to get off the Metro by Sunday Morning. Some had to dive off Anonas street in Quezon City only to get home while other motorists left their vehicles at EDSA not because of heavy traffic, but due to flood everywhere. Metro Manila turned out to be a water world for that day. And because of that, businesses went closed, some people’s lives turned into their deaths, houses and other structures were heavily damaged, costing into billion pesos. It’s everything that you may imagine or watched on those sci-fi movies regarding “dooms day,” turned into reality on that day. It was a hell 36 hours of catastrophe but the reinvention of everything didn’t went overnight unlike how the destruction went through. For some, it was shortly like a week or two to have their primary services like electricity and water to get back; while the majority still relied onto the relief goods, candlelight and broken water pipes. Sickness came along as its after-effect. My father and uncle were one of the victims of leptospirosis and recovered after a week. I still remember everything about it and in fact, it gave me a sleepless Saturday night exactly a week after the typhoon. After Ondoy, Pepeng came along and Northern Luzon suffered the same fate that the Central had during Ondoy’s. Santi came to the metro but it crashed some areas in Souther Luzon. 2011 came and Bebeng and Falcon were an early serious threat but by late September in almost exact two-year-period, Pedring and Quiel slammed the provinces of Northern and Central Luzon and it almost flooded the place where I am residing again. Well, good thing it never made it to the grounds of the house. Disasters like that had been brought out by climate change. And we are barely accountable to that matter, whether we like it or not. © 2011 september twenty-eight productions.

(Read more)

Ketsana - The Prayer "Chanting Inner Peace" Beautiful Futuristic Zen!!

“I am very happy that the organisation formed a Self Help group and will give rotating funds to us. I have attended training on chicken farming and I register to be a member of Self Help Group in my village, I extract some earnings to save in the group as I believe that the group formation could help me in the future. Moreover, I gain a lot of technical knowledge of chicken feeding from the project. I just learned that we have to prepare cane baskets to raise chickens and use vaccines to free them of disease.” The help Nheng and her husband received will enable them to start living a life where they can feed their children and send them all to school everyday. With a long breath and a big smile, she looked at her chickens and said: “I hope to get rotating funds soon to buy more chickens and Muslim Aid will support us some more.” The joy on her face is priceless as she reflects on the prospects of her future. Muslim Aid has not only helped her in her time of need, but have also given her the tools she needs to prevent further impoverishment.