I woke up to September 26, 2009 thinking it would be a normal day. It was raining, not hard, but it had been raining all night. That wasn’t new to me, it’s always raining especially recently. Overnight rain was also very common so there was nothing to worry about.

It was a Saturday and I had Saturday classes, my General Chemistry class took place at 7am-12pm on Saturday and I didn’t like being late to my Gen Chem class. I woke up around 4.30am like I always do to do some morning work and my follow fridays (okay, I do my follow fridays late because I wait for everyone else). I even remember complaining on Twitter about the rain and that it was making me lazy. The rain wasn’t pouring very hard, or any harder than usual so I knew we had class. I ate, got ready and went to school, using the route I don’t usually use because it’s muddy when its raining but I didn’t want to be late for class. I didn’t notice anything new, except that it was already a bit flooded at the street (where the route of the tricycle goes through). It didn’t really make me think though. It had been raining for days straight now, so what was new? Besides that part of the village, I knew was a bit low and flood wasn’t out of the picture – I just didn’t really think it’d be over the head within a few hours.

So then, I went to school, all normal, not even the news had any information that the storm would be harsh, no news had come beforehand that anything would be different, and if I can remember well, Rizal was only on a storm signal #2 that morning. I went to school, waited for class.

Unfortunately,  I waited for nothing because the professor didn’t arrive. By 10am, we were given permission by the Dean of the college to go home. By that time, the rain was coming on harder. It was kind of normal already for me, I’ve gone through so many storms and got home fine. I’ve seen rain pour worse and I’ve been farther home at the rate of the rain at that time. At the front of the school, there’s a low area where it’s always flooded during rain. At that time, it was already flooded. I didn’t panic, neither did anyone I was with at that time. Everything still seemed normal. It’s happened before, harsh rains, slight floods – normal. That time, I already wanted to go home, so we’ve been anticipating a slightly lesser rainfall to go out and get home. I was going home with 2 friends, and we said, we’d wait for the rain to calm a bit. By 11am, rain wasn’t slowing down and I was getting hungry. I texted my uncle and my sister if they could come and pick me up instead. The front of the school was flooded and I knew that the van wouldn’t be able to handle the flood, so I said that I would meet them in a nearby mall, Robinsons Galleria in Junction of Cainta. To get there, I had to cross the highway or the Junction (a four crossed highway street). By then, we noticed that the front of the building was already flooded, the water was rising – and quicker than we realized at the moment. I even remember laughing at the cars that had to stop because their engines had been wet by the flood.

My friends and I (we were all girls, by the way) decided to go through the rain just to get home. We stopped a bit on the way to buy slippers for me. By then, I was already getting a bit worried. Junction’s water at that time was already by my ankles and I didn’t really know what to expect anymore. In truth, I was more obsessed with going home and getting something to eat than in the rising water.

I finished buying my slippers, put them on and my friends and I trudged on. Before we can cross the street to Robinsons Galleria Junction, we had to turn a corner. As soon as I took one look at that corner and the surroundings, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I don’t even remember what was on my mind then. I think it was half panic, half fear.

The scene I saw when I finally registered into my mind what was happening:

Cars, vans, big revos and jeeps had stopped along the road. But it wasn’t what really caught my eye. It was the height of the water. About 3ft already, the brown, murky water was like the waters of the ocean during a raging storm. Waves, big waves rolled around the unusually flooded streets, I remember even thinking of surfing at that time. We were near the corner then and to my surprise, the rush of the water, now up to my thighs was overwhelming. I’m a thin girl, so every rush of the water had me and I had to hold on to my friends. By then I was already panicking. Who wouldn’t? I’ve been living in the Philippines for almost 8 years now and I’d never experienced anything like this before! We stood there at the corner, probably registering into our minds what was happening. My brain was incredibly slow at that time and once I got myself thinking again, it didn’t take long for me to realize that my uncle wouldn’t be able to get to Robinsons to pick me up as our van couldn’t drive through high floods or its engine would stop.  Still, I was determined to get home and I was still in communication with my uncle. All I knew at that moment was I must get to a safe place.

My friends and I decided that we couldn’t do it, we couldn’t go through that waist-level ocean-like flood. We turned around, slowly creeping our way back to the store where we bought my slippers and where it had some roof to shelter ourselves for awhile. It’s only been about 30 minutes from school and I was already drenched. We didn’t think to go back to school at that moment. We just wanted to go on so we can get home. The highway facing the school seemed to have a lower level of water so we quickly decided to move on.

Our adrenaline rush kicked in as we stepped into the thigh level water. It wasn’t the murkiness of the water or how icky the water felt against our skin. It was the rush of the current that had us holding onto each other for dear life. I swear in that moment, I thought I was going to die. The current, the waves, with every ten wheeler truck going by and every tidal-wave like roll of the flood, I thought my body would be rolled on with the current. Suddenly, some men who were half naked (in shorts) came up to us and offered us a hand.

“We got you,” they said.

I’d never been more grateful. They helped us cross the highway and I didn’t know how else to tell them how grateful I was for their help. And okay, well, the guy who pulled me was kinda cute.

Never mind that.

Anyway. I remember slipping up just before I reached the other sidewalk and the guy had to hold me steady for awhile to keep me up.

By the minute I was walking along the corner of this street, I was already regretting it. The water was getting deeper by each second and I was half soaked – and I had an umbrella. On this side of the road, I knew I couldn’t turn around anymore. I just needed a safe place. I was scared. It was just my adrenaline rush that had me going.

“We can’t stop now,” I remember telling my friends.

We kept going. Imagine. 3 girls, none of us even 5’5 tall. We weren’t athletic, nor muscly built. Just normal, thin, petite girls trying to get ourselves to a place we can feel safer than it was in the middle of the water that could run us down by its current.

We were on the other side of the street now and we were turning a corner. I was getting scared of the water because the water was above my hips now.

Suddenly, I heard a rumble and I screamed along with my friends as the wall made of thin metal or yero as it is called in Tagalog, fell back.

I froze. I didn’t know what part of me it was or whatever that made me stop, but I couldn’t move until my friend pushed me from the back a little harshly, probably from the long line I was creating. I breathed a sigh of slight relief. I was alive. We moved on, and I almost lost my slippers, had to balance myself on a tire to get my slippers back. We had to stay away from the sides (where the stores used to be) because the walls could collapse and we may not be lucky the next time around.

Finally, we realized it wasn’t an easy job to get through. We got some plastic from the houses near the street, which were already buried halfway, by that time) and we wrapped our cellphones inside them. We needed to cross just one more street to get to the mall and it wasn’t going to be a dry journey. I was hesitant to cross again because of the raging current and was immediately grateful again to a bunch of guys who helped us cross.

Filipino men are great. They helped us throughout the street and even tested the next corner for us to check if we could handle the current.

We went on. We were so close to the mall that I just wanted to stay there where it was safe. But it wasn’t home. I knew we couldn’t stay at the mall. At this street, just a few ft away from the mall, the water was lower and I was grateful.

Then we saw the 10 wheeler. I remember seeing news before this happened when I’d watch people climb onto 10 wheeler trucks just to get home. I never thought this would happen to me. We climbed on as this was our only hope. No cars could get through the height of the water anymore. It was only this truck. We climbed in with the help of some men.

I never thought I’d experience this you know. The way I fought for my life, the way that I had visions of my body floating, lifeless around the flood, the way that I’d be ridden off by the current and then hitting some kind of material or tool that would eventually cause my death. It was frightening. I was scared and I couldn’t laugh off the situation anymore. I was really scared and there was nothing I wanted more than to be at home. I couldn’t think clearly, heck, I couldn’t think at all! Was it like this everywhere? Was it like this where my family was? Is the Philippines going down? Is this my last day? Was the water going down in a few hours and would we be laughing about it later on? Would the water even go down? I remember watching news about people who stood on their roofs while the water slowly seeped over to them – would I end up the same?

Part 2 soon.

Some pics are from Ms. Andreana of http://www.misswicked.org/
She also braved the waters during Ondoy. Salute to you kapwa-Pinay!