Here Comes The Flood

It has been raining constantly here on my end. The LPA, which later became Tropical Storm Agaton, brought us nonstop rain. I miss the heat of the sun already, so enough with the rain please. There are also some sitios or barangays that have already flooded, and residents have been evacuated to a safe location.

 Just this morning, I heard from one of my neighbors that one of her relatives' house was destroyed by a flash flood. Since it was made of light materials, it was swept by a flash flood in an instant, leaving no trace of their house. It's a good thing that her relatives were already evacuated before it happened. 

 I suddenly recall a time when I, too, had an experience that had something to do with a flood. I was only 9 years old when it happened. We were living in the Vista Verde Subdivision in Cainta at that time. No, we don't own a house there. We can't afford it because only the rich can afford to build a house there. 

 My Lola has a friend who owns a house in that subdivision, and because no one wanted to live there after her husband was murdered, she offered us a free stay. And since we were only renting at that time, my Lola agreed to it because it would save us a lot in monthly rent. 

 So we were living in Cainta while our school was located in Angono. It was a 1-hour trip without traffic and probably 2 hours with heavy traffic. As a 9-year old kid, I didn't mind it at all. I even enjoyed the long trip. I was not alone though, because with me was my sister, who was in grade 1 at the time, and my cousin too. So we three were traveling every day to get to school early. 

The rainy season had arrived, and a typhoon was approaching. That morning, we had no idea that there was a typhoon coming, so we still went to school, me, my sister, and my cousin. 

Heavy rain started to pour down, and so our class was suspended by the afternoon. We were told to go home as soon as possible. So the three of us were thinking of what's the best thing to do, whether we should wait for our Tita to fetch us, or just go home. And we came to an agreement that we should head home while the rain is still not that hard. 

By that time, it was already hard to commute. Most jeepneys were full already. Then there was this young man who helped us hop on a jeepney even though it was full. He told the jeepney driver to let us ride because we live in Cainta and it is not safe for us to wait any longer. 

So the passengers let us sit on their laps until we reached Tikling. But the jeepney could no longer go beyond that because it was already flooded in some areas, especially in Brookside. So we all got out of the jeepney and walked from then on. I could hear people talking about how dangerous it was, but me, my sister, and cousin were actually enjoying it. It felt like we were on an adventure. 

We were holding hands while walking. I told them to not let go of my hands. We were all soaking wet because of the rain, and our bags were already wet too. 

People kept asking us if we were with someone, but we told them that it was just us three and that we were headed to Vista Verde. They were surprised because, just imagine, late afternoon, in heavy rain and flooded streets, there we were, 3 small children, walking hand in hand as if nothing was to be afraid of. 

Most people would advise us to hold their hands just in case. And we did.

Then we arrived at Brookside and the flood was waist deep for grown-up people, so it was chest deep for me and my sister and cousin. My sister was already afraid. I could see it in her eyes, so I told her that we had no other choice but to cross it. We were just fortunate enough that many grown-ups helped us cross that chest-deep flood in the Brookside area. 

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We arrived at our house safe and sound. Our Lola was so relieved to see us get home safe, but she thought we were with our Tita because, according to her, our Tita went to our school to fetch us. But we told her that we did not see her. Fortunately, our Tita got home safe and sound too, although a little late because she arrived so late. We were getting ready to bed when she arrived.  

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Looking back on what had happened, I wondered what a 9-year-old child would do in the same situation that we had encountered. Would she do the same as we did, or wait for someone to fetch her at school?

At that time, I was not afraid. I did not feel any fear because all I wanted to do was to get home before it gets dark. 

Date Published: April 10,2022