The Day After The Flood

The day after the worst flood in Philippine history. This post will be a narration of my experience of the flood. If I'm writing this, then it means I've been fortunate because our house was not affected and we still have electricity. Many people were not so lucky and still need help.
I reported for my 5 a.m. shift Saturday. The rains had already been falling but did not seem to be any cause for concern then. My shift ended at 12:30 p.m. and mom called to say that the car had not been able to leave the village due to floods. Since I had a 10:30 p.m. shift later that evening, I prepared to just wait it out and crash on one of the sofas in reception for the meantime.
At about 1p.m., Ate Mai, our office's pregnant cleaner, told us that people across the Marikina river were already moving up to their roofs, trying to save their possessions. From our office on the 9th floor, we could see people standing in the rain on their roofs, the Marikina river, filling with debris and moving fast between us.
We went out to grab some lunch and load our phones. Many of the restaurants and stores were closed or closing. When we got back to the office, the elevator had been shut down to ease the burden on the building's generator. It was eerie climbing the dark stairways with the sound of rain beating outside. People moved slowly, with only their cell phones as flashlights.
There were only eight of us left in the office. From the fire escape I watched as the river got stronger and angrier. I watched a dog on the debris of a destroyed house get swept away. I heard there were reports of dozens of people on floating debris who rammed into a bridge. I hope they're ok.
After a while, security told us that they were shutting down the generator as water was beginning to creep inside. The office stands on the banks of the Marikina river. We left the building and settled in at one of the 24-hour restaurants overlooking the driveway of the mall next to the office. After a couple of hours, the driveway began to fill with light brown mud and water from the banks of the overflowing river.
A Korean lady was also looking for a way out. She was clearly panicked but still had the decency to cover me with her umbrella. Thank you Korean lady. Her little son seemed to be enjoying himself though which exasperated the lady. We then decided to go to our boss's condo in Eastwood. We decided to take the long route to avoid the flood, which had reached thigh high in our area, even though the condo was just across the street. We stayed there a few hours and then I moved to a family friend's condo next door where I spent the evening.