My Life’s Story

Harrowing Experience During a Strong Rainfall in Marikina

One of the difficult situations in Marikina during the rainy season, especially when there is a typhoon, is because we are close to the river, it is unavoidable to feel anxious because when the rain is heavy in our area or when there is a typhoon, we are sure to experience flooding. One day, while I was on my way to our computer shop in the morning during that time when there was a typhoon and heavy rain, I was waiting for a ride on the highway. Suddenly, it crossed my mind to just go back home and not open the computer shop for the day because of the strong rain, I was worried that our area might get flooded. I immediately walked back home, not far away, I could see that the water on our street seemed to be rising, and I was correct in my assumption that there was flooding and it reached waist-deep. I quickly returned home and helped in placing all our belongings, clothes, and other important items that should not get flooded, on the higher parts of our house. Minutes later, we were surprised because the water rose quickly and it reached our house's door. On that day, the rainfall was truly intense, the water level rose rapidly.

One hour had passed and the flood had already reached the roof of our house. Most of the people on our street climbed up to the house of our neighbor who had a 3rd floor. Not just one family, but many of us went there because there was nowhere else higher to go. We had children, babies, and elderly with us, and we were all very scared because the flood was rising rapidly. It didn't take long before the flood almost reached us on the 3rd floor of our neighbor's roof. It was extremely frightening because if it had reached us, we would all have died as the current of the water was very strong. Even if you knew how to swim well, you would surely drown due to the force of the water. We stayed on the roof of our neighbor's house all night until the water receded.

We have not yet finished our suffering from the flood, the rain has weakened and the floodwater has subsided, but we are still thankful because no one was hurt or killed among us. We were shivering because we stayed on the wet roof without food for a long time, the next morning we immediately returned to our house and started cleaning up, there was so much mud brought by the flood, we cleaned for days, it was tiring and hunger-inducing, but we endured all of that because this is not the first time it happened, you can expect that whenever there's a storm and heavy rain, we will be flooded here in Marikina.