Davao City was never known for floods. Sure, some parts of Davao would get flooded but its always due to drainage issue. It was something that the people of Davao City can be proud of. We may not be as modernized or advanced compared to Manila, but its something that Manila doesn't have the we have, a flood-free, protected from any typhoon environment. For my entire 20 years of existence, I have spent my entire life in Davao and never was I able to experience flood. I've experienced having to cross flooded streets, having to go to a flooded classroom but never was I able to experience flood in our place, in our home. There was just this one time where water rose but it was never something serious. On a side note, we are kinda lucky since our house is somewhat elevated. Throughout everything my family has been through, flood was something we never got to worry about. We may live near a creek, but we are elevated so any elevation of water doesn't really affect us in any way. Truth be told, our place is flood-free. Period. But you know, if something that is not suppose to happen, happens, you just know that there is something wrong. It ain't normal. So when our place got flooded, you can just tell something bad will happen, and it did.
My story begins in a cold Tuesday night on June 28, 2011. I just came home from my final coaching and was dead tired. It was our second to the last day, so pretty much board exam was already just a mere 4 days away. We had a test paper that we were suppose to answer in advance for the next day, but I was too tired that I spent the night surfing the net. It was the usual routine. After "doing" what I need to do, I decided to hit the sack and to just wake up early to answer the questionnaire. It was already 11 PM and the strong rain hasn't stopped yet since 9PM, but I didn't mind, its just rain.
Not long after I found myself tucked-in in my bed. There's nothing better than sleeping in a cold weather. But the soothing feeling of being asleep in the cold rain suddenly got interrupted as my mother was waking me up. My mother shook me nervously as she kept telling me "Nagataas ang tubig" (The water level is going up). I was in disbelief but I went to look outside and the water did rise to knee level. I was shocked, but I felt that it won't increase anymore, but I thought wrong. My father was outside taking my tito's car to a higher ground while my mother was trying to elevate some stuff in the house. Me? I was just dumb-founded, walking around the house not knowing what to do. A few seconds, the scene that I thought I would never get to see in my lifetime, was becoming a reality. The water was slowly increasing and then all of a sudden, the water was creeping in our floor. I starred down at the water slowly flooding our floor and I froze and can't move a muscle. My mother suddenly called my attention as she asked for my help to try and save some stuff. My father came back and all of us elevated the refrigerator by placing it on top of some chairs.
In all honesty, we didn't knew what to save after that. We just tried to elevate what we could elevate. Last time I checked, the floor was just wet. Next thing I knew, the water was already on my ankle, and then my entire feet was completely covered. As much as we want to save a lot of things, it was already too late. We had a lot of stuff most piled or stacked on the floor and pretty much, it was too late to save them. The water was increasingly rising, and my mother, in all fairness despite being hysterical, decided to just evacuate our house as she feared that we might get trapped inside the house. At that time, water was already on knew level inside our house, pretty much if you go outside our house, the water is on the hips already. My parents and I decided to pack important stuff as things were not looking good. It was an odd feeling when I was thinking what to pack. Sure, money, wallet, important and valuable things (like my new camera), but it was just odd that I was there trying to pack things as everything was about to end. I'm not suppose to be in this position, but it was really happening. It wasn't a dream. It was like a preview on how the world will end. I placed everything on a plastic bag and we tried to exit to the door, but the flood was rushing too fast and we can't get out. We were dead stuck.
My father decided that we exit through my sister's room. She wasn't at home as she was on duty at Tagum. While my father was taking out the windows, the flood caused my sister's bookshelf to collapse and the water swallowed all her nursing books. Around that time, a song in my head was playing, that type of song that plays when everything is all lost. We didn't really know how high the flood would get, all we felt that everything was lost. But before we coud get out, Idemanded that we saved the computer as I just can't let it get drown. Me and my father escalated the computer but putting it on top of a table and placed the CPU and printer on top of the already elevated refrigerator. My father cut down the screen with the use of a knife. After that, we finally went out through the window. The water was on chest level already. The chairs on our terrace was already floating, clogging the entrance of our terrace. Thanks to our grills, we were able to slowly climb through our roof. And there I was, for the first time, in our roof, looking over our surroundings covered by flood. The water was still increasing. Me and my mother was settling down while my father went down again to check on my grandma and tita on their house next to us. I checked on Facebook through my phone and notice that no one was actually talking about any flood. I thought it was a city wide flood but I guess it was only in our area. My father assisted my grandma and tita to get to a higher ground and me and my mother helped my grandma and tita climb to the roof as the flood had already reached the 2nd floor of my grandma's house. I was still posing some status in Facebook, maybe hoping will know that somewhere around Davao some people are isolated by high flood.
There was still small rain pouring down, but I couldn't care. It was really a bad dream gone true. I still can't believe it was happening to us. The feeling that your own livelihood is slowly disappearing right before your very eyes as the flood is swallowing it. So many thoughts were popping out in my head. What stuff got wet? What happened to the computer? Are we going to be poor? Would I still be able to take the board exam? Is this the end of everything I planned to be? I just couldn't think straight that time. My father decided that we go to our grandma's house as the flood stopped getting higher. We pass through the window and there I saw the first floor of my grandma's house becoming a huge swimming pool. It was moment's like those where I wish I have a camera. Oh, I have one, but it didn't have battery. We were settling ourselves as the flood was slowly going down. It was already 3 in the morning. I lied down my tito's bed as my father said to rest. I guess it was his own way of trying to say it's going to be a long day. Good God it was. But as a lied down, I don't know if I would be able to sleep. I used one of my "sleeping techniques" to fall down asleep. As my eyes closed, all I knew was that the bad dream...was still going on.
To be continued.....
My story begins in a cold Tuesday night on June 28, 2011. I just came home from my final coaching and was dead tired. It was our second to the last day, so pretty much board exam was already just a mere 4 days away. We had a test paper that we were suppose to answer in advance for the next day, but I was too tired that I spent the night surfing the net. It was the usual routine. After "doing" what I need to do, I decided to hit the sack and to just wake up early to answer the questionnaire. It was already 11 PM and the strong rain hasn't stopped yet since 9PM, but I didn't mind, its just rain.
..........
Not long after I found myself tucked-in in my bed. There's nothing better than sleeping in a cold weather. But the soothing feeling of being asleep in the cold rain suddenly got interrupted as my mother was waking me up. My mother shook me nervously as she kept telling me "Nagataas ang tubig" (The water level is going up). I was in disbelief but I went to look outside and the water did rise to knee level. I was shocked, but I felt that it won't increase anymore, but I thought wrong. My father was outside taking my tito's car to a higher ground while my mother was trying to elevate some stuff in the house. Me? I was just dumb-founded, walking around the house not knowing what to do. A few seconds, the scene that I thought I would never get to see in my lifetime, was becoming a reality. The water was slowly increasing and then all of a sudden, the water was creeping in our floor. I starred down at the water slowly flooding our floor and I froze and can't move a muscle. My mother suddenly called my attention as she asked for my help to try and save some stuff. My father came back and all of us elevated the refrigerator by placing it on top of some chairs.
In all honesty, we didn't knew what to save after that. We just tried to elevate what we could elevate. Last time I checked, the floor was just wet. Next thing I knew, the water was already on my ankle, and then my entire feet was completely covered. As much as we want to save a lot of things, it was already too late. We had a lot of stuff most piled or stacked on the floor and pretty much, it was too late to save them. The water was increasingly rising, and my mother, in all fairness despite being hysterical, decided to just evacuate our house as she feared that we might get trapped inside the house. At that time, water was already on knew level inside our house, pretty much if you go outside our house, the water is on the hips already. My parents and I decided to pack important stuff as things were not looking good. It was an odd feeling when I was thinking what to pack. Sure, money, wallet, important and valuable things (like my new camera), but it was just odd that I was there trying to pack things as everything was about to end. I'm not suppose to be in this position, but it was really happening. It wasn't a dream. It was like a preview on how the world will end. I placed everything on a plastic bag and we tried to exit to the door, but the flood was rushing too fast and we can't get out. We were dead stuck.
My father decided that we exit through my sister's room. She wasn't at home as she was on duty at Tagum. While my father was taking out the windows, the flood caused my sister's bookshelf to collapse and the water swallowed all her nursing books. Around that time, a song in my head was playing, that type of song that plays when everything is all lost. We didn't really know how high the flood would get, all we felt that everything was lost. But before we coud get out, Idemanded that we saved the computer as I just can't let it get drown. Me and my father escalated the computer but putting it on top of a table and placed the CPU and printer on top of the already elevated refrigerator. My father cut down the screen with the use of a knife. After that, we finally went out through the window. The water was on chest level already. The chairs on our terrace was already floating, clogging the entrance of our terrace. Thanks to our grills, we were able to slowly climb through our roof. And there I was, for the first time, in our roof, looking over our surroundings covered by flood. The water was still increasing. Me and my mother was settling down while my father went down again to check on my grandma and tita on their house next to us. I checked on Facebook through my phone and notice that no one was actually talking about any flood. I thought it was a city wide flood but I guess it was only in our area. My father assisted my grandma and tita to get to a higher ground and me and my mother helped my grandma and tita climb to the roof as the flood had already reached the 2nd floor of my grandma's house. I was still posing some status in Facebook, maybe hoping will know that somewhere around Davao some people are isolated by high flood.
There was still small rain pouring down, but I couldn't care. It was really a bad dream gone true. I still can't believe it was happening to us. The feeling that your own livelihood is slowly disappearing right before your very eyes as the flood is swallowing it. So many thoughts were popping out in my head. What stuff got wet? What happened to the computer? Are we going to be poor? Would I still be able to take the board exam? Is this the end of everything I planned to be? I just couldn't think straight that time. My father decided that we go to our grandma's house as the flood stopped getting higher. We pass through the window and there I saw the first floor of my grandma's house becoming a huge swimming pool. It was moment's like those where I wish I have a camera. Oh, I have one, but it didn't have battery. We were settling ourselves as the flood was slowly going down. It was already 3 in the morning. I lied down my tito's bed as my father said to rest. I guess it was his own way of trying to say it's going to be a long day. Good God it was. But as a lied down, I don't know if I would be able to sleep. I used one of my "sleeping techniques" to fall down asleep. As my eyes closed, all I knew was that the bad dream...was still going on.
To be continued.....
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