May 29, 2008

May 17, 2008, Saturday…5:00 a.m….I woke up and ready to do my daily routine…switched on the lights…oops…no lights again? I told myself…wow… it’s going to be a long, hot day. The electricity will come right back It’s one of those brownouts that won’t last long. Sure enough, at 6:00 a.m. the electricity came back. But after 5 minutes, there was no electricity again. Oh well, maybe the electric co. personnels were just clearing branches touching wire lines in preparation of the expected storm. Maybe the electricity will be back at 5:00 p.m. as is the usual length of brownout time we were already accustomed to. By night fall, 6:30 p.m. I told my family to bring out the candles and flashlights ready. I told them to close the store earlier than the 9:00 p.m. closing time. By then, we could already feel the wind gusting from nowhere every now and then. The winds kept up its tempo and became stronger as the evening fell. At 7:30 p.m. we could hear the howling and the whistling sound, moving in a swirling motion, going nowhere in a hurry. I thought this was no ordinary storm. Though I told myself to relax, I could feel the tension creeping up. The winds kept on until 11:00 p.m. Then the rain came. It was just the normal rainfall. By then the winds dissipated. It was a good thing, the rain didn’t mix it up with the winds. There would have been more damages to the people and homes, etc. It kept raining until the wee hours of the morning.

May 18, 2008, Sunday…6 a.m…Still groggy from lack of sleep, I went out to check the surroundings. As I stepped out, there was water all around the house…4 inches. Looking at the fields in the back of the house, I could see a lake of water…maybe 4 to 5 feet high at the deepest part. There were large mango trees uprooted and toppled. Broken trees and electric posts and cut electric wires were all over the neighborhood. I thanked God for our safety. There were no casualties in our neighborhood except for what I already mentioned. After an hour, I checked again the level of the flood water. It was going up instead of receding. I learned later on that the dam personnels released water from the dam to accommodate the incoming rainwater. When they do, we always get flooded. This flood was nothing compared to what we had way back in 2003. Our wooden hexagon shaped umbrella (metal roof) with a 4x4 wooden stake anchored on a cement base, was broken and blown away 15 feet…good thing there was a railing that stopped the fall otherwise it would have gone overboard to the ground. Well, there goes my drinking nook when I had the urge to drink my beer once in a while.

May 19, 2008, Monday…We had cleared the surroundings…the leaves from the bamboo trees as well as the broken bamboos. By now, the flood water has completely receded. Checking my palay bonobon which was two weeks old, it survived the 2 day underwater. I heard that we won’t have electricity for one month. Wait a minute.Did I have my generator conditioned? No…I had this “mamaya na and saka na” habit. I forgot to have it fixed. I might as well call the electrician/mechanic (he was the best) to fix it. I promised myself to be ready next time for anything…oops…gasoline, rice and food prices are going up. That’s a different ballgame.

May 20, 2008, Tuesday…Still without electricity and my generator was not ready (it will take another 2 days to have it ready). The weather was kind of humid and hot due to the evaporation of the floodwater. If I can survive 3 days without electricity…I could take another 3 days. But the electricity was reconnected at 5 p.m. and we were very happy to get it back…the kids and the adults also were shouting with joy. We were thankful because neighboring towns won’t get theirs back until after a month.

Typhoon Cosme brought destruction…53 people dead, 29 injured, some 252,000 families displaced, and 115,000 homes destroyed (31,000 totally destroyed and 85,000 partially destroyed). It affected 1459 barangays in 73 municipalities, seven cities and five provinces. Four regions- three in Northern Luzon (Region I or the Ilocandia, Region III or Central Luzon, and the Cordillera Administrative Region) and Region VI or the Bicolandia. Zambales and Pangasinan suffered the most. Magsingal had slight winds and rain.

When I go to Magsingal next week, I will take pictures as I pass the towns. I will keep you posted.