Typhoon 'Ondoy'

September 26, 2009, 10:00 am- Classes were suspended in UST due to "Unending Grace".

The University of Santo Tomas is known to be the oldest University in Asia. Founded 1611, it will celebrate its quadricentennial year on 2011. Besides its 400 years of excellence in different academic fields such as Medicine and Engineering, UST has been popular for being an instant swimming pool during rainy days. The nonstop heavy downpour of rain caused by the typhoon "Ondoy" made the whole Metro Manila submerge in flood.

I was about to get my uniform when I received a text message saying the classes are suspended. Though I live only a few blocks from UST, I decided not to take the risk of getting wet just to confirm if we really have classes or not. It was about 10 in the morning when classes were officially suspended. Flood was already surrounding UST that time yet some of my classmates were still inside.

I was enjoying this noontime show when someone knocked on our gate and found out the market vendor, peddling her vegetables. It was then I noticed that the flood is slowly entering our garage. After a few minutes, I was shocked to see that our garage is already covered with water. We hurriedly transfer the shoe rack on top of the stools so that it would be safe from the flood. The washing machine was also elevated. When the water starts to crawl inside the house, we immediately carried our things upstairs and elevated the the electric fan, the refrigerator and anything we can save. This was the first time I encountered a disaster like this in my 19 years of existense.

<----This is not a kiddie pool, this is our garage. :))

The flood has already reached the first step of the stairway and the rain is still pouring. There was no electricity so we have nothing to do. We were just upstairs, hoping for the rain to stop. Luckily, I have my PSP, iPod and cellphone all fully charged. :) I woke up early the next morning to find out that flood is still outside. We called for someone's help to clean the house. Electricity and telephone line came back around 6 in the afternoon. We watched the news and saw that in other areas, flood has already reached up to the roof of their houses. There are others who died and some are still missing. I can say that this typhoon is the worst tragedy that struck Metro Manila.

I realized that we are still lucky enough because we are alive and we are at the comfort of our homes. Let us pray for those who still need rescue and for those who suffered from this tragedy.