When Mother Nature Strikes Back...

A thought on Global Warming and the Typhoon Ondoy aftermath.


September 27, 2009- Davao City, Philippines.

I woke up usually late in the morning for I always sleep late the nights before. I noticed that there was a light rain and it was a gloomy morning. I checked on my email and Facebook and I found out that the UAAP basketball finals was cancelled due to typhoon. I thought that it was the usual typhoon that flood Metro Manila-as always.

I was preparing for school late that morning when I opened the Television and saw the heavy rains upnorth being telecast. Here in South, we only experienced isolated rainfall suffice to say I was not really materially injured.

I went to school and the rain was sort of becoming light to medium showers. My friends and I were enjoying the weather because it was a good day for talks and discussions. While we were doing group talks, my classmate mentioned that the Bar Exam will be cancelled because of flood. It did not really bothered how catastrophic the typhoon was until I went home that night and saw the news.

I was tuned in to ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel), when a celebrity named Chrisitne Reyes was interviewed and was crying for help. She was on the roof of her house and desperately needs help. It was quite a shock on my part upon realizing how enormous the flooding would be considering that people on that village opted to stay on the roof and even saying that if the rain would not stop they would likely be drowned. When an aerial view was shown on TV, it seemed that Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon were covered with waters. The only thing that can be clearly seen were roofs and some people. It was an unbelievable sight.

Honestly, it was the worst flooding I ever saw in my life. True, I was not there to experience it firsthand but seeing those victims lost their homes, crying for help, etc. were enough for me to realize how bad the effects of the typhoon was. I was also worried of some friends who are living in the north. All that I can do was to pray for their safety.

Now we can all agree that this is one of the consequences of not taking care of our environment. Landslides and flashfloods which are caused by typhoons and heavy rains which also results to the loss of life and properties. Garbage thrown anywhere which clogged the drainage contributes to flood, inundation, overflowing of rivers, etc. Who's to blame on this? Some people blame the government for not putting much emphasis on flood control projects and other environment-friendly projects. I would say blame it to discipline, for being not part of us. We could not just put the fault on the government and to other people. It is too bad that we (that includes me) get to have these sentiments when a disaster or tragedy happens. Maybe because this is the only time that we get to be reminded by God and Nature that we are just human and we do not control everything. That, we do not have the power to abuse and destroy our environment because when mother nature strikes back, we definitely are nothing but a mere unimportant living creature being wiped out.

As for today, Typhoon Ondoy's rampage left 73 deaths and counting for there are still who are missing and leaving thousands of people homeless and displaced.

***All photos from pinoyexchange.com