Flood Warning Siren Goes Off… Evacuate the Children
Heavy rains the whole day today… almost non stop. I’ve been visiting the riverside dike wall looking at the height of the Marikina river. At first look the river level had reached the side walk on the far side. On second look the river level had reached the side walk on the near side… my side. Lots of on-looker fellow villagers. First heard one say he heard on TV a dam had released some water.
I packed up my desktop computer and stored it in the 2nd floor. My wife’s harps were already on the 2nd floor. Children were asleep by past 8pm. I tried waking them up with my wife at 8:45pm but they were sleeping like logs. Wife refused to get up, said they already prayed about the rain. Didn’t they do that with 2009 Ondoy floods?
Then 9:45pm the Marikina flood siren blew long and hard. I drove to the dike to see the level, rising a bit. Seems rain is thinning out… but they blew that siren for a good reason. Maybe they new dams are releasing waters and the waters have not reached our area yet. So the time to evacuate is now. I don’t need a 2nd warning. Now is the time because I’ve got children and it’s my responsibility to bring them to safety.
So sleeping kids, pick them up like rice sacks and stuff them in the back seat. Take a nannie with me. Wife wanted to stay home. We brought her more expensive car with us.
As we drove past river banks road the marikina river was high and raging. Maybe some 4 feet more and it reaches the road. Called wife and sister in law about it. They’d rather stay home.
Oh well. I don’t care how many times I exercise this drill about evacuating the kids to safety… it’s for the kids. We live in a proven flood prone village, it’s the responsible thing to do.
We are now in the condo on the eighth floor… no flood will reach the kids here.