Praying for Our Countrymen's Safety

Yesterday, while I was at Great Wall Cars North Edsa waiting for some papers to endorse the repairs of our Peri, I saw on the news the flooding in Calumpit, Bulacan. I posted status updates about how sad the condition of our fellow Filipinos in Calumpit and learned that Hagonoy was also hit by floods. People were stranded on their roofs as some were being evacuated using rubber boats, something like clawfoot tubs make shift boats. With typhoon Quiel approaching, I just pray for the safety of Filipinos.

Flooding in Bulacan

Evacuation of Calumpit flood victims

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Our Nintendo Wii vs the Flood and Typhoon Ondoy

Yes, our Nintendo Wii still works! When typhoon Ondoy hit our country, the flood waters went inside our house and left our bedroom like this.





My wife placed our Nintendo Wii inside a plastic bag with Ziplock and secured it on the top plastic drawer. But as you can see in the pictures above, the plastic drawer cases also fell to the floor after probably being lifted by the flood water and entered each compartment.



The plastic with the Ziplock did not work either because as I inspected the Wii console, its two remote controllers, and a pair of nunchucks, water was dripping from inside the Wii console and the other accessories. So we let it dry for a few days and also blow dried it before testing. When we tried it, we were glad that we can still view the Wii Home but when we inserted the Wii Fit and Wii Sports discs, they could not be read by the Wii console. We thought we’d need to resort to diet and regular exercise again instead of the alternative games of the two that we have. The two remotes worked perfectly but the nunchucks did not.

A few days after, when we were scheduled to go to SM Megamall for the launching of the Atrium, we intended to bring the Nintendo Wii to a service center. So I tested it again and to my surprise, it worked perfectly! I realized that it wasn’t completely dried yet when I first tested it. My wife and I are happy that this turned out this way, at least it saved us from additional expenses. Thank You, Lord!

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Ketsana - Ondoy Typhoon: My First Hand Experience from Rizal

Typhoon Ketsana, whose PAGASA name was Ondoy, formed early on September 23 2009 and left a trail of disaster in the areas of Marikina, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Quezon, Makati, Pasay, Pasig, Valenzuela and San Juan. Flooding also occured in nearby provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and other Southern Tagalog areas. Major roads were rendered impassable because of huge flood currents and clogged cars. Our area, which is called Lower Antipolo was also hit.

This tropical typhoon, Ketsana and locally called Ondoy, has brought record rainfall to Metro Manila, not seen since the start of rainfall record keeping according to Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), producing only moderate winds but hours of extremely heavy rain, which led to the worst flooding in living memory. I read that the usual amount of rainfall received in one month was brought by Ondoy in six hours.

We were able to document our first hand experience of this disaster in our own neighborhood (Kingsville Subdivision, Lower Antipolo). Below are some pictures from September 26 to 29 as Ondoy ravaged Metro Manila.



September 26, 2009, Saturday at 10:20am: The flood hasn't reached our elevated garage but has filled the street.

At 1:05pm: the flood has reached our elevated garage and has entered the house of our in-laws. We were hoping it wouldn't rise and not reach our house.

At 5:45pm: the flood has reached our elevated garage and has entered our house. It has become waist-deep in the middle of the street.

At this point, we decided to evacuate and we were thankful that our next-door neighbor accommodated us and let us use one of the rooms on their second floor. As soon as we have evacuated our families, I, with my brother-in-law and their helper went back to salvage what we can. When we did what we could, we went to our neighbor's house and hoped the flood wouldn't continue to rise.

At 9:40pm: The flood waters continued to rise. It has become neck-deep in the middle of the street. In the lower part of the subdivision it has reached up to 15 feet deep.

Thank God we were able to evacuate our family and He provided a place of shelter for us. I feel deeply saddened for the other typhoon victims - for their greater loss. May God have mercy on us all.

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