Few weeks ago, the weather was hot, dry and windy. Dust are all around the house and the construction of the water pipes in the street made it worst. They have been digging holes for more than two months now if I am not mistaken. I had a lot of sneezing and it so hard cleaning the house. For that reason, I asked God to send a rain to drive away the dust.
It was Wednesday, my husband went to Pangasinan to meet a couple, Paul and Susan Tuma, from Michigan. They were one of his good friends back there during his mission trip. I asked my younger brother Joshua to stay with me while he was away. Joshua came that night and informed that there was a typhoon coming with a storm signal that starts in letter "O" because he forgot the name. Rain started to fall that night and didn't bothered it because it was just rain without strong winds.
We woke up and is still raining for the whole day. Heavy rains caused classes to be suspended.
Joshua and his group had a scheduled final defense for their thesis so it was cancelled. His school was just few walks away from our place, but when heavy rains occur, their school experiences flood with knee deep water that subsides fast after the rain stopped and this is normal. Joshua got home disappointed not only their defense was rescheduled but because he needed to walk in the flood. Later in the afternoon, it's time to shop for our dinner. I crossed the street to go to the market, some of the stalls closed earlier as usual. While shopping for food, I heard one man saying that Calumpang River will soon be filled with water if the rain will not stop from pouring.
We have no TV at the house, we can only watch TV downstairs, at our store. That night, the news gave an update of the typhoon's activity. I couldn't forget the woman who was reported missing due to a flash flood in San Juan Batangas. Hearing the news made me not think of someone in our family was hurt.
My husband's family is from San Juan Batangas. What I love in their place is the view of the river at the back of their property. Their house is situated near the highway while the Lawaye River is around 250 meters away from their house (I'm not good at measurements). They had many trees in their back yard "looban" and near the river are lots of bamboos. My father in law says that they have not experienced this river to overflow despite of the hard rains and storms for the last 65 years. To be exact, the last time Lawaye River overflowed was October 1947. As he says it to me, he is confident that there will be no problem whenever hard raining strikes.
I received a call from my sister-in-law around 7:30 pm looking for my husband who was still in his trip from Pangasinan. From her, I was informed that the river overflowed and the water rise up at chest level inside the house.
My father in law is 80 years old and her wife is 75 years of age. Two younger siblings of my husband is living with them. They heard the dogs barking and run towards them frightened. My father-in-law loosen the other dog that is tied and they immediately evacuated the place. It was around 6:30 pm that the water started rising and very fast. They had no chance of getting the cars out of the garage. It was only their youngest brother who knows how to drive. The water subsided after two hours. My in-laws stayed at a relative whose house is across the street.
We decided to pay them a visit the next morning and it was Friday. We brought clothes, rice and other stuffs available in the house that will at least help them. We didn't see the actual scene after flood. The mud is around 6 inches thick inside as they describe it. All of their appliances were soaked in water and had no dry clothes to wear. Other members of the family have been there to help clean the house.
Life is full of irony! For others typhoon would cause them in big trouble while for others it's a blessing. For my in laws and others who have been affected it meant distraction of their properties and even loss of life. Unaffected people will feel cozy in their houses craving for their comfort foods and hiding under the blanket all through the day. The rain was an answer for my prayer ending my rhinitis and eases my problem cleaning the house. On behalf of my in law's still, we have all a thousand reason to be thankful to God despite of what had happened - and one is none of them was hurt badly.
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