Typhoon Ondoy: My Story

It was about Noontime on Saturday, September 26th when the wedding reception had just come to an end and we received the call. I had been in Baguio with several other students, our Academic Dean and our Dean of Students. The message passed quickly from person to person, “Manila is flooded. APNTS is in the state of emergency and they are seeking approval to serve as a refugee camp for some 200-500 persons.” Many of us from APNTS quickly convened and discussed our options. Pastora Luz Tamayo and her family along with Janary Suyat and a few others from school decided to leave immediately for Manila and started down the mountain on the 7 hour drive to the watery National Capitol Region.

Meanwhile, we returned to the Luzon Nazarene Bible College, where we had been staying. Entering the missions house, we convened in what I imagined to be a war-time briefing for the UN head council. Immediately, out on the table there was a simultaneous unpacking and opening of laptop computers and cell phones. Academic Dean, Dr. Lee San Young and Dean of Students, Beverly Gruver scrambled to convey the appropriate approvals back to Manila to get the refugees into a safe place on campus. Keys were another issue. With the President of the school in the states and the two Deans in Baguio with us, and other pertinent people dealing with the flooding of their own homes in Manila, access to campus buildings were limited.

They need access to the key box” responded one, reading a text message.

“Tell them to break the lock,” Dr. Lee quickly returned.

As text messages bounced back and forth, I quickly searched for radar images, new briefs, traffic reports, and webcams shots from Manila, while talking online to whoever I could in Manila to ascertain how bad the situation was for the surrounding area, and how passible the roads would be if we left immediately. I found that water was chest-deep in the downtown area of Taytay, and up to 10-12 feet in other areas. World Mission Communications, located on APNTS Campus was flooding but controllable. Others on campus relayed that water pipes on campus had broken and clean drinking water had to be purchased for both the refugees and the campus residents.

After a few hours, we heard word from Jana and Pastora Luz that getting home would be impossible tonight as they were stranded on the highway due to high water, and unable to get to even get near Manila. Other text messages quickly following relaying equally dark news for our return to Manila.

We were told that people continued to pour into campus seeking shelter from the encroaching waters. Saturday night, a text message read that 289 people had registered and were being housed in campus buildings at APNTS. Most of the refugees came from Rowenas, a squatter community located behind APNTS on the banks of the creek which flowed through campus. We later learned that at least two children from the community had lost their lives in the flood.

The next morning, Sunday, we spent time together in prayer and worship, and then started out for Manila. Reports came back from Janary and the Tamayos saying that they has only made it as far as Marikina (a municipality about 4 miles away from APNTS) and they were stranded with limited food and water supplies. We were told that local markets had ran out of food and standing water still remained 10 feet high in many areas. We were warned not to come near the Marikina area, but we were still determined to get as close as we could to Manila and APNTS. We continued down the mountain and along the highway toward Manila. As we drew nearer, standing water and heavy cloud-cover met us causing us to question whether or not we should continue.

We had arranged to stay at Angeles Church of the Nazarene with Rev. Agbuya, but as Manila came closer we began to notice charter busses which we knew originated from the Cubao area in Manila. We decided that we would at least try to make it to Central Church of the Nazarene in Cubao. From there we could at least rest for the night and try again in the morning.

Through whispered prayers and with a firestorm of reassuring text messages back and forth from Manila to our van, we made it not only to Cubao but through a large portion of Metro-Manila before encountering the stalled cars and rescuers carrying life-boats. We wove in and out of the small Barangays and winding city streets navigating through higher ground. With paramedics and rescue teams moving in one direction and evacuees moving in the other, we made our way to the opposite side of Taytay, where APNTS was located. Driving through about .5 miles of only 2.5 feet of water we made it to familiar ground and wound our way back to APNTS Campus where work with refugees was well in progress.

It was about 7pm and dinner had just been served to the students and refugees. We arrived, dropped our bags, and immediately began work. Glen and several others worked on setting up a projector to watch a movie with a room full of children. It was amazing to see how willing the kids were to laugh and play in spite of losing homes and many of their possessions to the typhoon. Among the kids, I found a few of the “street kids” that I had known from around the Kaytikling area. We were able to sit and talk a bit of what had happened the day of the typhoon. “sira ang bahay ko” (my house is damaged) he reported and told of his other friends who had no home at all.

Others updated us on some of the unforgettable events of Saturday afternoon. We were told of one man was actually swept away by the currents just in front of campus, and was nearly dropped from the bridge into the raging creek below, however, he was able to grab the side of a building just in time and pull himself to safety. Elsewhere on campus, several landslides and rushing waters caused some shifting in some barrier walls, and entirely destroyed segments of others. One landslide took down a large tree, dropping it some 100 ft into the creek washing it outside of campus and lodging it under a bridge down the street.

We worked the next day from 2am until about 10am watching the refugee site and then distributing crisis relief goods as the refugees returned to rebuild and repair their homes. The rest of the day and week began with prayer together and then quickly turned to the great task at hand, rebuilding, repairing and providing whatever we could to the community around us.