During this time, a storm had hit us really badly, so much that it flooded the whole city. Our house got flooded and for a while, I thought my brother and I were gonna be submereged in water. I still remember the panic in my heart, coupled with the acceptance I could die at any moment and the resistance of subjecting my brother to the same fate. I'm just glad we lived to tell people about what happened.
I'm also glad that my travel plans didn't pull through 'cause if they did, my brother would've been all alone at home when the flood started. I shudder just thinking about it. God indeed has the best plans for us.
OCTOBER
Up to this point, my brother and I have never experienced intense flooding. We would always see it in the news but it felt alien to us, since we've never been in an actual flood. We never even thought it would happen in Naga, yet it did.
It happened one evening, right in the middle of a power outage. We knew they would turn off the power, so it wasn't a shock. We were going about our regular dinner plans at home when my brother noticed his feet were wet. He then looked over at the bathroom door and saw that it was spilling from there. It was then that I noticed my own feet were cold.
The water was steadily flowing out from the bathroom and soon the water was up to our knees. We acted as quickly as we could, taking food up the stairs and unplugging appliances. What made it worse was that It was my first day of red. Knowing this, my brother told me to stay on the stairs as he handed me one item after the other to secure at the top of the staircase. I held the light up while my brother labored for a few hours.
I think it was around 11pm by the time we finished. We were in his room, bathing in alcohol to make sure we didn't get any infections. There was barely any signal to contact my dad so we just sat there waiting. Thankfully, the signal cleared for a few minutes just enough for us to get a couple of texts through. I told my brother to try to sleep and that I would be staying up to keep watch. My head was pounding and I didn't know how long the water would keep rising.
I went back to my room, occasionally going out to the staircase to check how much the water had risen. I fell asleep for a couple of hours and when I checked the stairs again, the water had fallen back to the first step (around 7am). That was the only time I allowed myself to relax. Everything was in disarray but all that mattered to me was that we made it, that the storm didn't worsen. My dad and cousin eventually came around and soon we had started to clean the house.
I still had a job to answer to so I decided to book a hotel room for around a week or so, for me and my brother. My dad and cousin went back to San Jose so it would've been just us two at home, which I didn't like as everything was still pretty damp.
That experience was something else. It made me more aware of how unprepared we were for emergencies like that. I probably should unpack my thoughts more but perhaps another time in another post.
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NOVEMBER
After the storm, things started going back to normal. I went back to my usual programming (games) and just chilled at home.
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DECEMBER
Just like that, 2024 was almost over. I feel like in a year's time, my way of thinking has changed and the need to retain my mental peace has started to outweigh any desire I used to have.
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Realizations were had, decisions were made, new people were met. My heart was in a weird point during this time so I have very little to say on the matter. All I wanted was for the new year to come so I could repeat that feeling of hope I had at the start of 2024.
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