Wary and Weary

We, Bicolanos pride ourselves with the resilience in facing multiple typhoons head-on before any of our fellow countrymen. Yeah, we face them before any of them do. Let the whirling winds and water waddlethrough. We’ll wake up tomorrow like this was a regular event and go on with everyday life.

So, why is everyone getting paranoid over the weekend? Yes, After Kristine was Leon. Then, there came Marce. Then, everyone’s getting jittery because of Nica. There were posts that say “Pray for Bicol”. There were suggestions to take extreme precautions because flood was considered to be very probable, especially in the areas which experienced severely high waters. I heard that families were going on pre-emptive evacuations. On the day that classes were supposed to resume, they were suspended again, (much to the delight of students). A couple of days before this, I wasn’t thinking much of it. But, over the weekend, the multiple worries and warnings were getting to me. I was thinking, they could be right. This one could replicate Kristine. This could be her twin sister. Then, Sunday came and I thought this should be it. I remember a couple of weeks ago, it was also a Sunday when the heavy rains which turned out to be typhoon Kristine started; and we thought nothing of it. We just waited for it to lighten up a bit so we could go home.

I’m not poking fun on the reaction. It would actually pay to be proactive. It’s still better to have the kids stay inside the house, keep important things in safe elevation, stacked up food and water, to wake up to good weather, than to go on with usual business and be caught unprepared with bad weather. Are you feeling bad about wasted time, missed opportunities, and ruined schedules? Just think about safety from potential danger. Safety far outweighs them all. We’ll still have tomorrow. Opportunities will still come. Events could be postponed. New schedules could be made.

After Nica leaves, soon, along would come Ofel, then, Pepito and Querubin. I can feel everyone around getting frantically stressed with these series of storms standing by. Kristine caused us so much anxiety that we seem to have developed some sort of paranoia that a typhoon of the same magnitude would come and ravage us again.

The latest I heard is that Ofel wouldn’t be much of a threat. Pepito, they say, would be plowing through Bicol directly. A friend is having trouble deciding whether to push through or hold back construction projects. Yes, I understand we’re all upset. It has all become a big inconvenience. You probably got all your stuff soaked. You have to go out and do something to replace those furniture which stink like trash by now. I extend condolences for the gadgets which won’t work anymore. Cleaning up has been a calamity in itself. If you’re employed in one of the shops which were wrecked by floodwater, work would have taken a sharp turn. (I heard, Converse rubber shoes which used to cost P 4,000.00 had to be sold for P 800.00 for reasons that you could guess.) If you’re a client of one of these shops, you have to make some adjustments with your transactions. When floods flowed inside banks, it muddied money and complicated contracts. I guess, travel has come back to normal. But with these storms on stand-by, that could change in a snap of a finger. I’m with you in wishing that all the trash could be taken away and the public market could return to its previously friendlier odor. There could be probably more disaster and distress that have slipped my mind. But, it’s our species, homo sapiens under the war waged by the violent vortex of winds and waters. We all can’t do much but let it have its way, and pick up the pieces after it has gone its way. When it comes to these natural disasters, the sooner we run out of its way, the better it will be for us. There simply is just no reasoning with these animals.

So, here they come. Get out of the way. I heard of common folk who would not want to leave their residential structures in the belief that it could withstand any storm, or those who were sure that flood levels would not reach a certain level. There had been local government people who would still encourage first to third graders to still come to class just as long as they come in raincoats and bring umbrellas. Some of these same people helplessly try to save commerce from the tirades of typhoons.

But, the naked truth is we can’t do much of anything. So, suspend all regular activities and let the typhoon through.

“…out of the storm. He said: ‘Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?” Job 38:1