Various Groups Launch ‘Ondoy’ Relief Operations

Published on September 29, 2009

In Metro Manila, over 5,000 people from 45 barangays were evacuated after incessant rains caused heavy flooding in Manila, Marikina, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Makati, Pasay, Pasig, Valenzuela, San Juan and Quezon City. A total of 50 road sections were also left impassable to vehicles due to raging flood waters, leaving several commuters stranded.

The total cost of damage has already reached P108.9 million. The damage to infrastructure has reached P108.7 million; and to agriculture P212,537.

In Bagong Pag-asa, volunteers from the CDRC prepare relief items for distribution. (Photo by Janess Ann. J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

In Pasig, one of the hardest hit cities, subdivisions on Barangay Sta Lucia are still submerged in chest-deep waters. On Saturday night, two-storey houses were submerged, trapping thousands, including patients in a hospital.

“The waters were dark brown and thick like soup. It was unlike anything we have seen in these parts at all,” Sta. Lucia High School teacher Karen Villanueva said. She and her students escaped being trapped inside their inundated school by scaling walls and crossing roofs to reach a three-storey house near the school. Floodwaters only started to subside on Monday morning.

Victims complained of lost cellular phone signals when these were most needed. “Communication was very important for us during those times of distress. We were failed by the networks, particularly Globe,” one of the victims said.

They also assailed military and police choppers who did not give food and water to hungry and dehydrated victims who spent two chilly nights on house roofs. “We saw lots of helicopters hovering above our heads but gave no relief. Only a small private chopper gave us a couple of food bags,” one of them said.

Victims trapped inside their submerged houses only started coming out Monday morning. They walked from Sta Lucia to C5 Road to escape while residents who could not come home since Saturday trudged the other way.

After being trapped in his Makati office for two days, Arnold Dizon finally reached home Monday morning to find his elderly and ailing parents trapped inside their house for two days without electricity and were running low on food and drinking water.

Cries of relief were heard all over the inundated Marietta-Romeo Village as family members were reunited while some residents silently started cleaning their destroyed houses.

Roads leading to the place were blocked by vehicles of all sizes washed away by Ondoy’s raging waters.

In nine hours, “Ondoy” reportedly dumped rainwater equal to an entire month during a rainy season. While Hurricane Katrina poured 380 cm of water, Ondoy dumped 410 cm of rains causing the worst flooding in the Philippine capital in the last 40 years.

With climate change at hand, the country would be most likely to experience more Ondoy, Aquino underscored the need to push for the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Bill, a law that would empower the local government unit in addressing such calamity. (with reports from Janess Ann Ellao and Ronalyn Olea)

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3 Responses to “Various Groups Launch ‘Ondoy’ Relief Operations”

Ondoy claims 240+ lives : The Philippine Reporter Says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:49 am
[...] Philippines as various organizations started distributing relief goods to calamity victims. (Read story…) Filed Under Homepage Articles and Photos, News, [...]
Dave Tenorio Says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
wla ako masabi sa mga group na ito. mas mabilis silang magrespond sa pangangailangan ng tao na nasalanta ng bagyo kaysa sa mga government official. buti na lng nandito sila at nabuo ang mga grupong katulad nila.

ano ang mangyayari sa mga taong nasalanta kung wala sila? siguro mas marami pang namatay. Im very thankful dito sa mga various groups na ito at dun sa mga volunteers.
mann Says:
October 25th, 2009 at 5:37 am
ang bait naman ni ms. angel locsin, sobrang ganda pa niya.