"water, water, everywhere"

It rained pretty hard last night. Another tropical depression forming around Guam, apparently. And, even though there wasn't water everywhere last night it did wake me up and I wondered how many other residents of Manila it had woken. There is a lot of fear in the city of another deluge and a friend of ours who works with the urban poor who were badly flooded said even the other night the parents were frightened when it began raining hard as they were not sure if they should wake their kids and move to higher ground, in case the dams were opened again. Because a lot of the flooding a few weekends ago was due to the fact that the government decided as there had been so much rain (a month's worth in 12 hours) the dams might break. So, with no prior warning they released the water. Which is why so many people, including a couple from our organisation who had to retreat to their roof as a result, had a metre of water suddenly appear in their house from nowhere. On top of this, most Filipinos cannot swim and in the urban poor area, some lost family members in the sudden surge of water.

There are still houses with about a metre of water in them and the families living in the local school gymnasium. There is still piles of mud everywhere. And the rubbish is unbelievable. We've seen many trucks with "Clean Up Operation" on them but the problem is, they fill so quickly and I've no idea where all that rubbish is being taken. On the road by one of the malls in Marakina the rubbish is spread all over the area where the river overflowed. It still takes my breath away to see how much damage and long-term effects there are. It also makes me realise just how blessed we were. Another family in our organisation who just live two roads down and down the hill a bit, are living with someone else who had the room for their family while their house is literally being rebuilt inside.

I also hadn't realised just how bad the north of our island got it. That super typhoon which missed us hit them a total of three times! As the typhoon left the Philippines it was hit by another which turned it back into the Philippines and was turned again to move back up the island before eventually leaving. There have been severe landslides with many deaths and the roads have been impassable. It is also where all the vegetables and salad stuff is grown and because nothing has been delivered prices are rocketing for vegetables. It is also a popular holiday destination as it is much cooler up north and many families who were planning to stay in Baguio over our break next week have had to change their plans. Which may sound trivial in light of what has happened but I'm actually thinking of the impact on the economy as the people's two main livelihoods are impeded on top of their personal losses.

It makes me think of all the times I have watched natural disasters in other countries on the news and yes, been horrorstruck, but not really understood the personal face of disaster.