We always have them. And when the wind named Habagat feels like dragging them along for an overstay, they sure stick around a bit longer….like another 24 hours or so. This normally starts month of May onwards. There are years there are only a few, other years some of them could be quite aggressive.
The Philippines is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, so typhoons here are normal. These typhoons have names, right? Well, there was even one year when there were 32 typhoons, we ran out of the alphabet, had to go back to the letter A and start all over again!
The biggest challenge my 2 sons and I had, was with typhoon Ondoy. Boy, that typhoon wreaked havoc, stayed in the city for a few days. On the second day of non-stop rain, I was taking a nap in the living room, and amidst the gentle constant downpour of rain, I heard some commotion outside the apartment. People were talking, rushing to and fro. Then my eldest son rushed down the stairs, shouted, ‘Ma! There’s water on the floor!’ Sure enough, water was ankle-deep.
I set my clock alarm for an hour, told my boys to pack a bag of clothes each, stuffed the important papers and money in my bag, all of us took a quick shower, cooked some food and ate, while I called my dad’s lawyer for a place to stay. We carried the refrigerator to the second floor, closed all the windows, turned off the main switch and locked the apartment. All that, in one hour flat.
My boys and I looked at each other, I hugged them and we all made an agreement that no matter what, we will stick together and never lose anyone on this difficult trip. Then we waded in the flood, which was already dangerously reaching above our knees. The situation became worse when we reached Quirino highway, there were points where the water was waist-deep. We stayed in the middle of the road. Several cars were stranded on both sides of the road. That long ordeal lasted for 4.5 hours, till we reached Roxas Blvd. No flood there. We hailed the first cab, got in, went straight to a condo where my dad’s lawyer had an empty office on the ground floor, with a mezzanine. The front desk and staff were expecting us and attended to us immediately. We all got out of our wet clothes, hung them, put on dry ones and slept for 12 hours straight on a carpeted floor.
We stayed in that office for 3 days straight, and my youngest son spent his birthday there. Good thing we were close to a few fast-food joints and a church. Donations from relatives, friends, and officemates came in, so we could replace whatever was destroyed in our home when we got back.
Typhoons are normal in our country, and we deal with them as they come. Just like pliant bamboos, Filipinos bow down and adjust, learn to survive, instead of being a stubborn mango tree that stands upright amidst the strong wind and rain, running a high risk of being uprooted.
One last note, not all areas of the metropolis floods this way. We lived in Pandacan at that time. It just so happened that the creek overflowed. There are many areas in Manila and in the provinces in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao that don’t flood.
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