Hello Gorgeous Reader!
I don’t know if this news reached your side of the globe but the city where I come from experienced one of it’s most tragic floods.
Midnight, while people comfortably slept on their beds as the rain poured and the winds blew, the CDO River began to rise. It all happened so fast that in a matter of 10 minutes, the water inside riverside-homes rose from knee high to chest deep.
Well, I didn’t have any share of experience with the flooding because I live uptown. Instead, the rain that dripped from our ceiling and strong winds kept me up all night.
Honestly, the thought of family members and loved ones who lived in flood prone areas didn’t bother me so much then. I thought the rain would just go away and it wouldn’t do much damage. I was wrong.
Almost a hundred have been found dead with twice as many missing. Thousands have been affected, losing homes and possessions.
It felt like the end of the world when my boyfriend called me around 2:00am. The rain and wind was still so strong. He was stranded on the road with his family with no place to go because the river water at his place reached ceiling high. I was stranded at home with no electricity nor water.
The next few hours had been a battle field. He finding a place to stay and I worrying to death on where on earth he was.
His last message was that he and his family are staying at his uncles house and that he’ll go back to check his place during the daytime when the flooding subsides.
Today, no matter how hard I tried to busy myself with work, all I thought about was seeing him. He lost everything he owned to the flood. He said he’d go back to try and salvage as many things as he can. I wanted to keep him strong and positive. I wanted my self to be strong and positive.
I haven’t heard from him since his last message. I couldn’t reach any of his family members’ phone number either. So tried my luck and went to the place where he lived.
I just wanted to see him. There were so many people there; barefoot and muddy all over. Their belongings and animals filled with mud laying on the streets. Their children dirty with blank stares standing along the road. It was miserable.
It felt like the end of the world. Looked around and he wasn’t there. I tried to search as far as my eyes could see and failed to find him. I asked the locals if they’d seen him. One lady offered to text me if she finds him and tell him that I am at that spot looking for him. She was an angel. I didn’t even catch her name.
A few minutes later, I saw him from afar walking towards me. He looked devastated and tired. He was muddy and barefooted like the rest. From a few meters away, tears have already begun streaming down my cheeks.
I tried to correct myself. “Hey, you’re suppose to support him and keep him strong”. How stupid of me to be crying like that. But I couldn’t help myself. A few minutes ago it seemed impossible for me to find him amid that chaos. I was hopeless. Now that I finally saw him, it just made me so emotional. I cried for reasons I could not fathom.
(For Photos, Google search: Cagayan de Oro City Flood 2011)
