vignette: 2011's first flood

Flooding, although it usually carries a negative connotation, is quite a natural process and is simply the response of a natural system---a river system---to the presence of too much water during an interval of time. When excess discharge is present in a river or stream, at first the water moves more quickly and perhaps some erosion of the channel takes place. If discharge increases too rapidly, however, water must move out of the channel and out onto the surrounding area, known as the floodplain. (Science.jrank.org)

Tago is a floodplain, and so the recent flood was par for the course!

Living alongside Tago River sharpens my survival instinct. And thanks to the conventional wisdom of my neighbors, I’ve learned to befriend the water, know its motion and meaning, and tame its denizens including the much-feared tangkig or sea snake.

When floodwaters came rampaging in the afternoon of January 3, 2011, I was not bothered that much, after all, we grew up seeing the river swell to irregular proportion usually at the end or start of the year. Tuig, my neighbors would say, referring to the time of the year when a change in the lunar phase pushes the water to its highest level. However, when the water invaded our sala---a first for all of us in the house---and rose knee-high, that was when I began to feel worried.

What if the rains won’t stop, I remember thinking to myself.

When the water entered our garage and started licking the tires of my Jazz, I drove it to the jeepney terminal. Meanwhile, in another garage, my other car was already given a half-bath by the flood. I would later transfer the Jazz to a higher ground where its roof got beaten by unremitting rains the whole night through.

After we had secured everything---or so we thought---I went out to check my neighbors. Living near the dike that was already invisible, some stayed on top of their dining table that they nailed hastily to the floor. Others made their sink their sanctuary.

It was a tableau of utter helplessness!

When I insisted on having them evacuated to our home, they declined, preferring to wait it out even if the table top and the sink were a fraction of an inch from the fast-moving water.

I went around Tago, and everywhere there was water as though all the angels in heaven were shedding tears all at once. And drenched Tagon-ons were all over the place: some were pushing their vehicles, others were paddling to the main streets their boats filled with children, pets, and belongings.

By midnight, I had a sense that the worst was over, and so I decided to call it a night.

But what a night!

Then suddenly I saw in a corner, near the sungkaan table, a black box: my attaché case that contained important papers like my car mortgage and passport, a digicam, the external memory of my netbook, $200, and my jewelry. In the frenzy of securing more valuable things, I forgot that it was hidden behind a cabinet.

Well, we gotta give something to Poseidon!

**************