Most compelling typhoon Ondoy video

It is the most compelling, the most copied and probably the most viewed typhoon Ondoy video in the net. It had spawned copious versions some carrying prayers and surreal music background. It was played a number of times in local TV and was picked up by foreign networks.

The video is a testament to man's nothingness in the face of nature's might and fury. It showed a group of what could be kids swept by the swift and angry currents of the river towards the underside of a bridge at the height of typhoon Ondoy. When the video panned downriver, only a single person made it to the other side of the bridge. The river was so swollen that the bridge became so low for people and debris to pass under it.



Initially, I was unperturbed by the Ondoy floods. It was not the first time that Metro Manila was flooded, right? Saturday evening, the TV news showed houses submerged up to the roofs, cars hoisted by the water atop trees, families huddled on rooftops, and government agencies tallying the affected and the dead. Having experienced the flood brought by typhoon Frank in Iloilo last July 2008, I thought that the scenes were just a rehash. ‘Been there. Done that.’, I shrugged.

However, the following morning, the TV stations kept on airing the devastation brought by Ondoy and the cries for help of the victims. Being a father myself, I especially commiserated with a father, an executive type, who was in tears and choking, asking those who have seen or known the whereabouts of his daughter to please call the evacuation centers. The father could be a growling tiger in the boardroom, but the thought of his daughter possibly suffering somewhere away from his consoling presence, ang tigre ay naging basang sisiw. Para sa akin na isang tatay, matinding parusa sa isang ama ang isiping ang kanyang anak ay nagdudusa at nangangailangan ng kanyang tulong, pero wala siyang magagawa.

Then I saw that Ondoy video. And I thought, ‘Tama na. Sobra na. The people had suffered so much already.’

I remembered the Saturday night of typhoon Frank in Iloilo. I kept vigil until midnight to watch if the water would reach the second floor of our house. Sensing that the water was receding, I went to bed tired, hungry, and disbelieving of all the helplessness I saw in our never-before-flooded neighborhood. I opened my battery-operated pocket transistor (there was no electricity) for updates. As I drifted in and out of sleep, I heard the news that a passenger ferry had sank when it got caught in the eye of typhoon Frank. The radio announcer sounded tired and he lulled me to sleep with the names of the survivors. I was too sleepy to react. But before I was drowned in deep slumber I uttered, ‘Tama na. Sobra na. The people had suffered so much already.’

The Ondoy video could have touched the hearts and minds of so many that a TV network made a follow-up story. It showed two dead bodies fished out along with some debris from under the bridge.



But where were the other victims? Who were they? How about the person who survived?

The following Tuesday, I saw again the video on TV followed by an interview of the single survivor. His name was Erik. He was a young man, still visibly stunned by the experience he went through. He said he was with some people, and his wife and his two daughters. They were swept by the current from a sitio in Quezon City, kilometers away from the bridge. With blood-shot eyes and a straight face, he said he was still looking for his wife and kids. ‘Huwag mong sisihin ang sarili mo,’ people consoled him.



Many said that the Ondoy onslaught was an act of God. Many also countered, that the devastation was an act of man. As early as the 70’s urban planners had already warned that the eastern part of Manila was prone to high floods and they forwarded solutions. Unabated clearing operations of the upland areas also contributed to the floods.

Unlike the people who consoled Erik, dapat ba natin sisihin ang sarili natin? With another typhoon scheduled this week, and more to come this year, are we in for another compelling video?


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