Milenyo Disaster

The strongest winds and the worst typhoon that hit my family so far was Milenyo.With winds howling, it left the whole NCR in blackout, tore down trees along Boni island - the major road in front of our building. I never heard such strong winds until now. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Daddy Poh didn't report to the office anymore when weather forecast for Manila was signal #3 by noon time. True enough, come 1pm, strong winds and heavy rain came and lasted till mid afternoon. Thank God I had the common sense to have Lois take her bath early, around 9am, while the weather was still manageable. An hour delay and she could catch cold due to the cold wind. Settling her first also gave me, Poh and nanny mhagie the chance to handle common typhoon mishaps like rain seeping in the door, dripping from the ceiling and the popular, brownout. Since Lois was feeling fresh early on, she managed to sleep thrice during the day, sans electric fan. Of course, we all took the time to catch some zzzs too while the little toddler snoozes.

Worst part of the day came from Grandmama. Her text message said they were not ok in Laguna because the whole house was in disarray. Rain and mud seeped in leaving all furniture, appliances, decors, cabinets - everything in shambles. She was most sorry about the photo albums, painstakingly arranged and treasured for years and now all muddy. Lois' baby book wasn't spared. Goodbye pregnancy test result, ultrasound photos, umbilical cord stump, first nails!

Disheartening indeed, but I know Lois would empathize more with her Grand mama when she finds out (when she's old enough) how terrible the whole scenario went. Grand ma Dahls couldn't help her tears when she recalled to us how they couldn't enter their village because all the roads were filled with fallen trees. They parked the car some place safe and walked towards the house, even crossing a raging river because the bridge above was impassable. And when they got home, they were shocked to find the whole house filled with muddy water. They had to break the door in order to enter, only to find all their things floating in mud. The ref tumbled down, the microwave was in the sink - the whole house was a mess.

Personally, I've forgotten about my sadness over the damaged photos. My heart went out to my mum-in-law. Anyone would break down when faced with such an ordeal. It was hurricane Katrina-like in impact!

Immediately after talking with her, the three of us prayed- Poh, me and Lois. We know that only God can protect our family from further damage and He alone can provide genuine hope despite the disaster. I also checked on our other relatives. They were generally fine, experienced brownout and broken glasses/trees but nothing as grave as what happened in Laguna. Loved ones in Bulacan were even lucky enough to contend with just power outage.

Us here in Mandaluyong were fine too. Lois is now sleeping, electric fan aimed solely at her. Power comes from the generator, Meralco said repairs will not be done until tom morning.

God has preserved us, I hope the rest of the metropolis was as protected.