I have long wanted to write this down but everytime I try to collect my thoughts, my eyes well up and go to a state of denial. The nightmarish scenes during the night of December 16 up to the wee hours of December 17 keep coming back and haunt me. Our desperate struggle to get out of the house through one of our windows clinging on to the walls and the clothesline while the rampaging floodwaters tried to sweep us away. Our struggle to climb up the concrete fence laced with barbed wire and our shivering long wait on top of an earth mound for the rampaging flood waters full of floating logs and other debris along the highway to subside and allow us to cross the road. I have dreamt of these scenes long before. It was déjà vu to me. 
Today marks the first month anniversary of this tragic incident and my eyes well up again but I take pain and courage to finally write down what I feel.
I have always believed that God has sent angels to guide and protect me and my family. Nothing personifies that than all of you who gave us help and assistance, offered prayers, comfort and solace. Family, relatives, friends, friends of friends, co-workers – no amount of gratitude can measure up to what you did. To say the least, we are forever grateful.
I would like to specially thank Jun and Nerissa Hufana who took the risk of searching us out during the early hours of December 17 and accommodated us in their home. Ivy Tapic and her friends who tirelessly helped clean up the mud and muck and volunteered to wash our clothes at no cost. Holcim Phil. for sending staff to help us in the clean up and other relief assistance. Kazzie and the Enriquez family for immediately providing us some of our basic needs. Kazzie’s almost daily visits to check us out has goaded us to move on. The Namocatcat family, Lalai, Aiza, as well as other friends and classmates of Jamjam and Juhai, Tope and Aloha Ambe, Kim and Neng Acoba, Linda and Susan Hufana, Lando and Helen Baguinat, PBS Radyo ng Bayan family, Cagayan de Oro Press Club, Msgr. Elmer Abacahin, PILMICO, and countless others whose names I cannot immediately recall.
We have gone back to live in the house now after more than two weeks of cleaning up sleeping on the floor of our sala with all the Spartan amenities. We’re still waiting for the light and telephone service to be restored. We still fetch our water from our deep well after we changed our damaged jetmatic pump. The road leading to the house is still impassable to vehicles as it is still clogged with logs and other debris. We have put up a temporary barbed wire fence to keep off looters. Some of our appliances, furniture, beddings, and clothes are still caked in mud and still wait to be cleaned up. The ground level in our yard has now been elevated to at least 1 foot of dried mud and a huge mound of it still in our front yard, which I’m thinking of using for re-landscaping. I have to admit that my wife, Beng is far more stronger-willed than I am in coping up.
My daughters tell me reassuringly not to fret too much about the things we’ve lost as they will be eventually replaced in time. But sometimes, I cannot help but give out a sigh of regret for some of the things lost – one of our pet dogs Mongie, whom we were not able to carry back to our room due to the rampaging floodwaters, all of my reference books, my favorite novels and cds, family pictures. Miraculously, our family bible is intact with not a single page blotched with mud. I found the small statue of St. Joseph the Savior left unscathed and the picture of the Divine Mercy still left hanging in its place.
These days, I go around the house and look at what’s left and what has become of it and do a lot of reflection. At times my eyes begin to well up and ask why this had to happen. But then I see the widespread devastation and think of other victims who are in far worse condition as I do. And I say to myself I’m still lucky. We survived because God was there all the time to lead and guide us to a safer place. In those trying moments, God has tested my faith and has made it stronger than ever before.
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