Margaux's Beach

wee hours of the night -- I awoke twice because Aidan was "sleep-crawling". He was half-asleep but he kept on moving, squirming, rotating, even climbing over me. It was as if he was trying to find a comfortable position. This unusual behavior happened twice.

10:00 am -- Aidan woke us up. He woke up happy and playful, which is a rare thing kasi usually paiyak sya pag gising. It was raining hard outside so Ivan and I thought na early morning palang, like mga 7am.

10:30 am -- I laid down the play mat for aidan so we can play on the floor. We ate breakfast while playing and watching tv. Breakfast was banana and kamote que, strawberry yogurt for aidan, egg and pork steak with fried rice.

11-11:30 am -- Ivan went outside to check the water level of Marikina river, which almost circumscribes Provident Villages. The water was up to the base of the dike but he already told us na impake na kami ng 2-3 days worth of clothing. We started packing. Inakyat pa namin yung ibang gamit and damit sa bed and taas ng cabinets. Thinking back, maybe we should have just left everything as is and left.

12-12:30? -- We rode the car and attempted to leave the village for higher ground. Ivan already called Celi and Tere so they can help us leave. However, due to the heavy rain, traffic, and flood, they were unable to reach us. We tried every possible exit but all streets were already flooded. So we went back to our house. We were thinking of just staying there until the rain/flood subsides. For some reason, Ivan decided that we should seek shelter in a neighbor's house with a 2nd floor just in case the flood becomes higher. He tried one house but was told we can't stay there so he tried another house. Mr. Reyes agreed to have us but since their house was being painted, we transferred to his daughter's house just beside theirs. At this point, Rose still wanted to go back to the house to transfer our wedding gifts from the floor to somewhere higher like on the cabinets, tables or beds. Both Ivan and I stopped her from doing so.

1:30 -- We were watching Transformers in Ate Dedeth's house when the water outside started to turn chocolate brown and the flow became stronger. We knew then that the river had overflowed. The water outside went from below the knee in depth to waist-deep. Our car, which Ivan parked in a relatively high level on the street was no longer there. We then started to bring some electronics up to the 2nd floor. I went upstairs with a sleeping Aidan in tow.

2:00 -- While I was upstairs calmly watching Aidan sleep, I was startled that the people downstairs suddenly started bringing things up. When I approached the stairs to have a look, I was alarmed that the water had already covered several steps. That was when we realized that we were in real trouble. The water was rapidly rising up the stairs. We started crying while frantically trying to prepare some things we needed. Rose and I pumped air into the kiddie salbabidas that we found.

2:30 -- The water reached roof level at the bungalow houses, which included our house. Our fear escalated when we saw our neighbors holding on for dear life. They just emerged from their house and were holding on to the door and windows. Ivan then started looking for and tying together cords, belts, sheets, or whatever he can use to throw to our neighbors. Aling Nita was shouting "Ivan tulong!" but we could not do anything to help them. Fortunately, Tito Bobby (from the house beside them) was in the roof tending to his dog. We frantically shouted his name, trying to ask for help for Aling Nita and her family. After several seconds or minutes which seemed like a lifetime, he saw them, went back inside and emerged with tied-up sheets. After some time, Aling Nita and company were safe.  There was another guy in the lot in front of Ate Dedeth's house; he couldn't enter his house because he had no key, and he couldn't swim. He balanced himself on top of the wall and was waiting for the water to rise some more so that he can reach the second floor of their house.  Fortunately, we were able to call the attention of the Santos's (the house across a vacant lot from them) so they helped him using tied-up blankets.

3-3:30 pm -- We started going up the ceiling. The initial plan was to climb up the roof using tied-up sheets. But we, especially Ivan, was hesitant. He suggested that we go up the ceiling instead, in the hopes that the water would not reach it anymore.   This was a fortunate decision since the water did not reach higher; if we had climbed up to the roof, we would have gotten wet in the rains. The children might have gotten sick.

4:00 pm (Saturday) to 4:00 am (Sunday) -- We stayed in the dark and hot ceiling.  Before nightfall of Saturday, Mang Mario had already removed the roof bolts so that we can easily escape to the roof in case the water goes up any further.  We prayed with the kids so that the water levels would not go any higher.  The rain outside was still strong, and I started thinking morbid thoughts -- what if the water suddenly rises? we would end up in a watery grave. (Ivan: I thought it would be ironic to drown considering my father was paranoid about floods, to the point of considering buying a canoe/raft/boat).  Mr. Reyes, who was staying on their roof with other family members, reassured us that we would be able to go up to the roof as soon as the water level goes up any further.  At some point, the rains weakened and stopped; this gave us hope that the waters would not rise.

3:00 am -- Ivan and Rose decided to come down to the second floor terrace in case rescue boats should pass by.  By this time, the water had already receded, making toilet-flushing noises in the stairways.  All the houses with people in them shone their flashlights hoping to get the attention of rescue teams.  At one point Ivan gave up on signalling since it looked like we were all just signalling each other and no rescue was forthcoming.

4:00 am -- Ivan and Rose gave the all-clear.  I was actually raring to go down because I was feeling cramped, hot, and I badly needed to pee. Everybody on the ceiling then went down to the second floor.  The water level covered about half the first floor.

5:00 am -- There was smoke coming out of the riverside; the smoke was acrid and smelled like something burning. This was the weirdest thing because we didn't know what caused it.  Maybe a factory released their polluting fumes?

6:00 am -- Sunrise.  Water had already gone down.  Some people were wading through waist-deep muck, searching for things (maybe some were looting?).  Anyway, while waiting for cellphone signal to strengthen, Rose and Ivan decided to clean up some and assess the damage to the house.  There was a red car (not ours) which had collided with the gate of the house, partially blocking the entrance. They couldn't get inside the house as everything was toppled over.

10:00 am -- Right around this time, the muck was about ankle-deep (or half knee-deep) in most places.  Ivan decided that we should leave the village by walking. The process was a bit trial and error, as everyone we asked suggested we don't pass where they just did.  Anyway, since the muck was mostly just ankle-deep, we decided to brave it through.  We left the house, and we left the laptops with Ate Dedeth (with some reservations from Margaux because she had worked for a long time on one of her projects there).  Since there was no way we could carry everything plus the laptops, we just decided to leave them and come back for them later. We also did not know how deep the water was in the other streets that we would pass so we decided that leaving the laptops behind would be the safest choice. There were also some people spreading rumors about another wave of dam releases by 3pm (unconfirmed, the army guys and policemen we asked did not know of it) which increased the urgency to leave.  In hindsight, the rumors may have been spread by looters trying to get everybody to leave their houses.  Only Ivan was prepared to walk as he had on rubber shoes; the rest had on slippers which made it difficult since the muck tended to suck the slippers.  So in most parts, we had to stop to take them off; and put them on when there was danger of glass debris. It was the longest walk of my life. It was hot, I almost slipped at least three times while carrying Aidan, my arms and back were aching from Aidan's weight, the stones felt sharp under my bare feet, and I felt weak from thirst, hunger and lack of sleep. Celi called while we were walking (yey the signal's back) to inform us that they were coming for us.  We passed by Bob (our car) about fifteen or so houses away; it was still parallel parked, and seemed only muddied up.  Ivan parked just about two or three houses away before the floods.

11:00 am -- We met Ate Toffee and Kuya Tana at the village gate.  We had not known they would be coming.  It was fortunate that they were there because Margaux was already exhausted with carrying a dead-tired Aidan (he was really a deadweight, so Ivan had to carry him part of the way).  Margaux was already feeling hungry and dehydrated (we had not eaten much during our stay at Hotel Kisame, since we were not sure how long the rations would be needed to last).  Anyway, Ate Toffee and Kuya Tana helped to carry some of our stuff.  They had drinking water (yey!). They told us Celi was also on the way in her car (Toffee and Tana could not bring in their car so they walked from Katipunan to Provident Village). At one point, we had thought maybe we had already passed by Celi; right around the Riverbanks area we saw her car, so she u-turned and we got in (Toffee and Tana still had to walk to their car in Katipunan; Philip later told us that they should have just ridden in the car trunk since it was only a small distance).  Finally, we were rescued!  We headed to Valle Verde 2 to the waiting arms of our families.  On a side-note, we later on learned that Papa and Marc was also on their way to rescue us around this time (they were just late by a few minutes).  Philip had even brought some stuff for us refugees.

So, due to the heavy rains of typhoon Ondoy and the release of water from dams without due warning, we lost our house and most of our stuff -- and we were one of the really lucky ones. We had not totally lost everything that we had, we are fortunate enough to have very supportive and loving family and friends, and most importantly we are all alive. Our beloved Aidan, for whom Ivan and I feared the most, is still the happy (sometimes moody) and healthy baby boy that he is. We could not ask for anything more.