How I survived a disaster called Pedring

8:53 PM gem 0 Comments

The last week of September was literally a disaster. The weather last Monday was not that bad yet, though it was already raining. I managed to attend a business training from 7pm till 11pm. Tuesday was the “IT” day. Living in Malabon, it is already expected that there would be flooding when there’s heavy rains. However, we were not prepared for a far more danger lurking. The flood gate was damaged. Around 9am, my uncle asked Yan to wake up and take the car out of the garage to a higher area. The water outside was below the knee. Blessing! (that’s positive thinking!) Indeed, it was a blessing because had he not taken it out, the car would have been floating in a waist level flood just an hour after.

We heard something explode, somewhere. Then, the electricity was gone. Aw! The rest of the days were spent walking in the flood, fanning myself for cooler air, and the rest, created History.

Yes! I was thankful that the flood in our home was only leg high because the others didn’t even get to save anything. Their entire house were submerged in water. At least we have a comfortable bed on the second floor to sleep in even though it was terribly warm! See, we have lots of things to be thankful for.

So how does one survive a disaster like this?

• Make sure your house, specially if you are living in a low land area like ours, has a second floor. Its even better if it has a third and a roof top! You can at least get to a dry place and wait till everything around you gets back to normal.
• Do not put anything valuable in the ground floor. Due to Ondoy's disaster, we already learned not to put anything important in the lower cabinet. No closets etc… Our fridge is forever elevated on a stainless stool made specifically for it. - Televisions are elevated, everything is!
• Have charged emergency lights. These helped us a lot during the days of darkness.
• Stock lots of candles. To be used when the emergency lights get drained.
• Have a gas stove. If you use electrical stoves, then you are off to starvation in times of disasters.
• Stock canned foods in case you ran out of food in the fridge.
• A battery operated radio helps to find out what’s happening in the world.
• Have a phone charger that’s battery operated. You can get these from Handyman. (I am not sure if they have ones for Iphone or BB)
• A book or any activity that does not need electricity will be helpful when you are bored.
• And lastly, a fan when you are in heat!

If you have these things, you can survive a disaster that would last for 3 days. (for more than this, my suggestion is to stock more… more… more…)

The aftermath of a disaster is disheartening. But people from where I came from have gotten used to floods. What I enjoy after a disaster is that everyone helps each other clean houses and gets the chance to bond by talking about their experiences.

Sometimes, disasters happen so we can start anew. I’ve seen people throw a lot of the things they were having difficulty letting go. Now, they no longer have to worry about it.