We are OK. Thank God!
We went to our house in La Med in Dasmarinas, Cavite early Saturday morning using EDSA and SLEX. With me was Mama and Elder Bro was driving. It was raining but not hard enough. Got there in about an hour. We brought in the stuffs we needed to bring there and freshened up then had our breakfast. Cleaned up then I looked for Mama only to find out that the third floor bedroom (Elder Bro's room) was flooded with rain coming in/seeping from the windows due to the direction of the wind hitting it. Helped her and we went back down. Then I was asked to go back there again after a bit and mopped up again the growing puddle (my hands hurt with the half-bucketful of water that I squeezed/mopped up from the rags/on the floor. Got some more cloths before going back there. Mopped up the floor with the additional cloths. Slowly and steadily. Thought to entertain myself so I turned on the TV. Watched some inane shows for almost an hour and then changed the channel when I stumbled on the news at QTV 11 and was shocked to see the footages and news that greeted me there. EDSA IS FLOODED. ORTIGAS AREA ON TV! We just passed by that only four hours ago! What happened? Even SLEX was inundated! Turns out continous rain did it. Other places are also reporting getting flooded. Areas that were not being flooded before are getting flooded. @_@
Txtd Mama downstairs to take a look at the news as well and I finished up there "plugging" the areas where the rainwater was seeping in and went downstairs to check up on Mama and to tell her of the text messages I am getting from our maid who was left in Caloocan. Youngest Bro apparently had to go out but was back there already coz he noticed/noted/learned from his friends that the place they were going to was flooded. He didn't wade in the flood since it was early and there were no flashfloods developing in our area yet. Our maid was demanding that I txtd Engr. Bro. I was wondering what for when he knows what he needs to do and he will inform us if he is ok or in trouble that's why I was not that worried about him. Besides, he was in his class in Manila and of course the place will be flooded so he will be delayed in getting back to our house if ever. Duh.
We began txting our maid for updates at home and she mentioned that water was seeping in inside the apartment that we are renting out and that they have been mopping/plugging the affected areas and checking on it from time to time to change the clothes used to mopping/plugging it. Mama txtd Engr. Bro how he is and I relayed that to our maid so that she would stop txting me about it. I already told her earlier that the area was flooded so he won't be able to get home soon and that she update us of what is going on over there instead.
We had a late lunch and we were all shocked to see the footages coming in from DZRH online (via DREAM Satellite) sent there by their reporters and we also noticed that the rains have gotten strong as well as the wind outside our house. We cleaned up and rested for a bit then I was beginning to doze off while reading that I decided to take a nap. After an hour or so, I woke up to find Mama gone and so I went to look for her and asked Elder Bro where she was. He said back up at the third floor. I took some super absorbent cloths this time to help and she had just about finished mopping up the floors (she told me that Elder Bro helped her earlier and that the other side of the room with windows have also had started to "overflow" with rainwater and that was were I noticed her mopping up. I helped out with the other side by running my cloths over the floor for some water seeping out from the vinyl boards (yay for heavy weight). Then Elder Bro joined us. We finished up and went downstairs and continued to listen to the AM radio tuned in on DZMM. Then tried the TV once again. Fortunately we have signal and saw the damage to the other parts of Metro Manila particularly in Marikina. We asked Elder Bro to buy us dinner at the nearby restaurant (he was able to go to the nearby SM Dasmarinas to buy us a Globe Tattoo Broadband Prepaid Kit so that he can set up Mama's laptop with it and that we may be able to use it whenever we are here in Cavite. We continued with txtng at home and Mama her sister who live in Paranaque City had reported back to her that her house is knee-deep in water inside already and that she is almost out of battery. When Mama inquired how she is now, we got no reply so I then sent a message to my cousin (her daughter) to inquire how are they. She then told us that her sis-in-law and their son had been moved to their neighbor's house opposite theirs as they have a 2nd flr and so that she and her son will be safe for the time being. They have no power by then and that their one-storey house have water inside it as her mom told us earlier.
I was also communicating chocolate_daze updating her about the conditions/situations as I get news from the radio and TV since she was trying to go home to their house in Marikina but she found to her dismay that she can't go home since Katipunan is also flooded. I kept telling her to grab a nap when she can since she hasn't gotten any sleep since her night shift at the call center. She later informed me that she had to go back to the office again and try to spend the night their until conditions improved. I kept updating her bits and pieces of news whenever I received her txt msgs until she got back at her office. She did put in work for a bit but exhaustion caught up with her and she finally rested as I have been telling her to do since she got there.
I then informed via txt the people in Caloocan to check out the rest of the house especially my room for rainwater seeping in there. (There was water seeping in as I have told them and it was on my window same with the maid's room across from mine and Elder Bro's and Engr. Bro's and Youngest Bro's.
We kept vigil with the news on TV and radio for updates. Mama and I actually slept in the living room instead of our bedroom. I woke up a little past 1am to go to the toilet and turned on the radio for some more news and heard a lot of people asking/pleading for help via txt/sms msgs to the radio station and the announcers there relay it on air for the authorities to know since they are also monitoring the radio stations. People are now stuck on their roofs in most areas of Rizal and Marikina by then. Tired, wet and suffering badly from hypothermia, hunger and a little bit panicky by then since it was dark all around. The rescue operations have halted in most areas due to lack of equipment and the impenetrable darkness and the inaccessability of the areas.
Sunday morning found Mama and me at church. Bought breakfast afterwards and ate it then we went back upstairs to try to remove the water from Youngest Bro's room which had seeped in the carpet. We were running out of cloths to use (we had two old blankets cut to pieces to use for this purpose) and resorted to using old newspapers to help with getting most of the water out of it. Then put down and turned on the desk fan (from my room) to try to dry out the carpet. Mama then suggested we wake up Elder Bro to go to the townhouse at Regency and check out the condition there as well.
I dropped by the Clubhouse office to pay the monthly association due while they went on to the house. After I came in Mama called us upstairs and we found that rainwater did seep in my room there and a puddle had formed. Mama and I mopped it up then made a quick sweeping/clean up of the rest of the house. Then she checked out under the sink in the kitchen to find out that here too water had seeped in. Again we double-checked places and put/plugged old blankets to help in absorbing water there in case there are leaks after we left. We then got back to our house in La Med and while I was taking my bath/shower, Elder Bro suggested that we go home already since the roads have cleared up. (READ: SLEX and EDSA are now passable). We then prepared things to bring home and promptly got back to Caloocan after an hour and a half of travel time. We simply ordered pizza (Pizza Hut with Palm Card) since there was only sopas for food available and we were hungry again by then.
We updated everyone and got updates from Mama's sis as well. They have begun the clean up at their house. Lots of things got damaged. Their appliances are okay just needed to fully dry up the ref. Had electricity on as well. Good.
My Bro-in-law txtd me earlier in the morning just as I was getting back to sleep to inquire what happened to us and if we are okay. I txtd back that we are all fine not to worry by that Tita's house was inundated since their bungalow/one-storey house is located near a creek. They called us as we were on the road going home and we later chatted via Yahoo!Messenger with Elder Sis to update them of what's happening with all of us.
The creek at the end our street overflowed and inundated the residents who lived nearby. The little bridge along 10th Ave. was flooded with stong current creek water. Engr. Bro had to wade thru waist-deep water from school to LRT Line 1 and then again from that little bridge (with a little help of a strong rope to hold on to) just to get home and then after taking another bath helped out at the house with the mopping up the day before. Those floods in our place have receded by the time we got home on sunday.
Thank God nothing more serious had happened to me or my family. I am most thankful that only minor inconveniences were experienced by my family. We wanted to go to my Aunt who was inundated but the roads leading to her house in Paranaque are all impassable still at the time.
That's about it. You can browse my flist for the other user's account of this weekend.
AND we have another developing disturbance that MAY become another typhoon in THREE DAYS' TIME!
Augh, pls do not develop into a storm. This one is enough to learn our lesson. (-.-)