STRANDED!!!

That's why its Fisheries St.

As I write this blog I am still in shock with what has happened to me and most specially the rest of Metro Manila. I was on my way to Heritage Park for the cremation of Tito Bert Veloso then i got stuck in traffic. Since I live at Visayas Avenue in Quezon City I told myself that I will drive by Katipunan avenue towards C5 to get to Heritage park. It was a good thing I brought along my jackets, extra shirts and cameras since I wanted to be ready for anything since it was raining hard when I left the house.

Even Jolibee was not spared

I left the house a little before 9 am and by the time I got to CP Garcia I was at the tail end of the traffic. It was around that time when the rains started to get harder at that time. Seeing the long line of vehicles I turned back and tried another route via the Old Balara way. When I got to the Balara filters entrance I became a part of the vehicles that started a counter flow going to the CP Garcia - Katipunan intersection. Upon arriving near the intersection I saw that both lanes were clogged and decided not to pursue my case and simply turned back. As I turned back I tried the route leading to Sikatuna Village but was unfortunate to pass because of the rising waters going to Kamias road. That prompted me to text my friend Mon Veloso that I wont make it and just went back home.

Truck Troubles

Going back I passed by Kalayaan avenue and on to the Quezon Memorial Circle and to Visayas avenue. There was a slight build up of vehicles at the QMC since the light vehicles were undecided to make a pass at the flooded street. After a few minutes the bigger ones found their way around the flood and I followed and made it to Visayas avenue and on to Fisheries st which is just 900 meters from my house. Unfortunately, the waters beneath the bridge along Morning Star drive rose to almost 5 feet and was impassable. I then decided to park along visayas avenue and have lunch in at Lola Idang's restaurant - it was around 12:40 pm.

Bus or Amphibian

After lunch, the others who were in the restaurant suddenly stopped and thought twice on going out since the rains have poured on its might once again. After a few minutes of discussions, we suddenly realized that we were all from the same place (SANVILLE) and were all waiting for the waters to subside so that we can all go home. Hours passed and we were laughing when we suddenly realized that a new member of our “waiting crew” was added, he was no other than singing star Luke Mejares. The hours passed and we were there just talking about life and people we know and those stuff. After a few hours we were laughing at the ordeal we had gone through. I told them, we were like the cast of a tragedy movie that got to meet up and eventually survived after helping each other overcome the ordeal they are in.

Residents ride a makeshift boat

After talking to my new friends we realized that we are all from Sanville.Luke is from Metro Heights while Raymond Diyco and his lovely wife Shella are from K-Ville. Segi who owns a nearby restaurant is from Interville and Tito Pepe and Tita Lulu Alcaraz are from Cenacle Drive. There were also three other couples who had to stop there to wait for the floods subside. When the lights and water went out at around 2pm we all were forced to wait at the restaurant and wait for a chance to go home. To make a long story short, we eventually got home at around 7:30 pm when Tita Lulu and Tito Pepe tried the other way around going to our house. Success!!!

Lola Idang's refugees

I was quite lucky since I was just in a safe place the whole time and was in good company considering we were all ranting with what he had to go through. When we finally got home and had electricity, I watched the news and was in shock with the ordeal other people had to go through because of Ondoy. In a nutshell I was quite humbled that I was ranting that I got stranded for almost 8 hours when other people from Marikina don’t even know where they will sleep and lost most of what they own. I hope the Lord will help us all in moving on and getting back on our tracks.