Here Comes the Rain Again

It’s a Filipino tradition. At least once a year, a strong typhoon would come our way; a typhoon strong enough to raise floods, cut power and suspend work and classes. When I was a kid, no year would be complete without it. But in these recent years, sometimes, we don’t notice that a year has passed that no torrential typhoon came our way. It must be climate change.

I would tell kids nowadays that typhoons used to be stronger in my childhood. I remember people rowing boats around the streets of Tabuco. The flood currents almost drifted me. I had to wade by myself because my parents were carrying my younger sisters. Classes would be suspended for almost a month because the school’s roof was torn open like a Spanish sardine can. Imagine how the wind did that. Power was also cut at the same length of time. Once, I got caught in the middle of a strong typhoon in Centro. The people with me inside the car were all murmuring prayers. My friend driving the car tried to take me home; but he couldn’t because large trees were already toppled, blocking the roads. I am so glad that those events are now but memories.

From experience (which we have much of), we classify typhoons as those that pack wind, water or both. This recent one packed so much liquid with him. Why didn’t we anticipate this much rainwater? News about the approach of Enteng buzzed just a day before the heavy rains. Maybe, we have become accustomed to typhoons that pass by, or were not strong enough to be concerned of. Yes, we probably heard about it briefly in the news, or from someone who would keep updated with the weather. But the general air was that this would be some atmospheric area that would just pass by, and we would go by dry as usual. We have this questionable tendency towards complacency, especially with calamities. Often, there’s this opinion that the rain isn’t or won’t be heavy enough, that activities have to go on no matter what, that we’ll run for shelter when situations turn bad enough. Some of us had the same attitude during the Covid-19 pandemic. We like staying near the edge and get shocked when we’re starting to fall over.

I know that there are children who are terrified of the sound of rain and adults who get a scare from the crackle of thunder and flash of lightning. I am not one of them. I actually find the sound of a heavy downpour calming and comforting. It’s the best time to cuddle up on bed. I personally think that a cyclone is a masterpiece of nature. I would watch the silhouettes of trees tossed by the strong winds and rampaged by torrential rains. I know, I’m weird.

But the last weekend’s rains went on and on. There was a similar event a couple of years back which ran for days. But I think this one packed a lot more rain because in a matter of hours, social media were being filled with photos and videos of quickly climbing flood water. Main roads, intersections and streets which would be passageways for those rushing to go home or those rushing to rescue or be rescued were being overpowered by the overflow. It was also claiming the residential structures. I was getting scared. We all have different circumstances, but why do people still venture out at such a time unless with the objective to evacuate. Had the heavy rains not stopped around midnight, the floods would have been a lot more elevated with more damage, more evacuees, more casualties.

In the morning after, we had to worry about leptospirosis. There are some things we can be grateful for. It was good that at some point in the middle of the night, the heavy rains stopped. In some places, there was no widespread lengthy power outages except in areas with high floods. I guess, those CASURECO day-long maintenance operations on weekends paid off. Although, there were intermittent power interruptions here and there. I was told that downtown Naga looked like a ghost town with floods in places where there used to be none in previous typhoons, and the whole business district rumbling in the sound of generator sets. Again, there had been worse post-typhoon experiences. We can’t hurry the kids back to school tomorrow. Floods inside the classrooms have not subsided yet. Those which don’t have floods serve as evacuation centers. Besides that, there were still some scattered downpours throughout the day. I thought, there would be a round 2 of the heavy rains of the night before. It was a good thing that it was over.

Now, let’s see what we can do to prevent deaths next time. “Then send quickly and get in your cattle and all you have from the fields; for if any man or beast in the field has not been put under cover, the ice-storm will come down on them with destruction.” Exodus 8:19