How did we survive 3 days of no electricity and limited water?

Tuesday July 15, 2014, classes were suspended here in Cavite. According to Pag-Asa we were included in the areas with Signal No.1 due to typhoon Glenda. It was sunny that day and I was thinking that maybe just like any other typhoons that went by, this Glenda typhoon will just pass and will not leave any trace from where we are now located.

I heard that this typhoon is like Milenyo. I will never forget Milenyo, I was still a humble employee of Mr. Lucio Co when it hit Manila. Many of my co-workers were stranded because of the strong winds that it brought. When we were advised to go home early, the car that brought me home almost turned around when we were hit by its strong wind and because of that, we needed to be careful in passing the street because many trees were falling down. That storm was quick but it left a devastating mark in Metro Manila.

Back to Typhoon Glenda, last Tuesday night, I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning hearing a loud whistle and strong wind. My husband came up to check me and Ren, he was holding a flashlight so I knew that the electricity was gone. I went down in the early morning to find my husband trying to keep the water from the outside from reaching our sofa. He said that I should go back to sleep and he will take care of it but after a few minutes I went down also to help him.

In the morning, I went outside the house when the sun came out to buy some food from the neighbor’s sari sari store. I saw lots of trees that fell down and some window glasses from the unoccupied houses that were broken. I was thankful that our neighbor reminded me to save some water because she said that there might be a chance that the electricity will not resume soon. I hurriedly went back the house and saved water in our small plastic drum and 2 small pails.

It turns out that our supply of water depends on electricity and if only I knew that it will resume after 3 days, I would have put some water on every containers inside and outside of our house.

Water was just one of our problems. Hubby was not able to send all his jobs to his boss online, and our internet also depends on electricity.

Day1 -Wednesday

This is the aftermath of Typhoon Glenda on the houses of construction workers from another subdivision at the back of our house. This was taken from our storage room.

This house suffered all the wrath of Typhoon Glenda because it was located besides an open space.

Here is a closer look.

When it is about to go dark, my son keeps on asking his dad to fix the electric-city (yes that is what he calls it). Sabi pa nya “this is a bad dream, not having electric-city” daw!

Day 1 is easy because we still have water. People were still cool.

Day2- Thursday

I was afraid that my husband’s boss is now very angry because Noel haven’t talked to him yet about what happened. I asked him to go to the mall and check if there is a computer shop where we can go online.

The nearest mall in our area is SM Molino. We were glad that they have a portable generator to supply for the needs of the people but unfortunately the only available computer shop at the area have no internet. The people are still waiting in line at the entrance of the internet shop even if they don’t know if the internet will be fixed or not.

We noticed that there were also lots of people charging their gadgets on every open sockets of the mall. I still have 1 bar left on my cellphone so I did not join them. I really thought that electricity will come soon.

We did not fell in line on the computer shop anymore. We decided to go to the supermarket to buy some foods and water container instead. I was surprised that people were having a panic buying in getting some drinking water. It was insane, and I remembered what happened in Tacloban while looking at them. Lahat ng tao may dala dalang tubig yung iba softdrinks na lang. Looking at them made me feel scared even more.   Parang zombie apocalypse sabi nga ni Noel.

We went home thinking what to do next. We saw some people in our neighbourhood who were now getting water from the subdivision’s pool  just to have something to flush the toilet.

My sister-in-law in Manila texted me and she said that there was already electricity at their place. My battery at that time was completely drained and the water in our drum will not last the night. Noel and I decided to go to Manila to charge our flashlights and gadgets and also ask for some water to bring to Cavite.

My son who saw all the trees that fell and the broken roof on our way to Manila asked a lot of questions like: “Who broke the world, mama? Why is Cavite broken? Who are going to fix all of these? “

These are some photos I took in front of Festival Supermall at Alabang.

We were still blessed to have nearby relatives who have electricity, water and a car to help us get through this. But, I am concerned about the other people from faraway places who transferred here in Cavite who don’t have any other place to go to. They need to have a water supply.

Day3- Friday

We have a little bit sleep this day. But we were awoken by another problem, Ren had a fever at around 2 o’clock in the morning. We were out of medicine for him so we needed to wipe a wet towel on him for his temperature to go down. Hubby took care of him because he is a night person. I needed to sleep so that I can substitute for him in the morning. Having a sick kid made the situation even harder.

Some of my neighbours are now pissed off. We saw some fire trucks supplying water already. But the subdivision is too big to be able to supply all the households. Some homeowners are now nagging the guards.

At exactly 2:30 this afternoon, a miracle happened which everyone did not expected… our light suddenly opened and we already have electricity. I can’t contain my excitement that I need to shout Hooray!!! I felt like a kid again getting her favourite candy.

REALIZATIONS:

After these 3 days of no electricity and limited water, I learned a lot of things.

1. To learn how to save “something” to be able to have “something” when needed. I am referring to water, charged gadgets and of course money here.
2. That socialization is really needed in one’s life. My husband is very shy and my son is socially challenged. Imagine if there is only the two of them in this kind of disaster. OMG! I need to teach these two how to survive just by dealing with people especially with the neighbours.
3. That in today’s generation, electricity and technology is very important. If we don’t have a way to communicate with our nearby relatives, I don’t think they will know what is happening with us, or us knowing what is happening to the other part of the country.
4. Be kind with everyone because you don’t know that maybe one day these people will be the one who will help you when you are in dire need.
5. That we need to think of other source of income besides online work so that we are not dependent to be online in order to get work.