TIME TRAVEL 1 : "Three years is quite a long time but it certainly seemed so short." Going Through Turbulance

I was a victim of Ondoy in Manila last September 26, when the Tropical Storm poured record rains in just hours, and ennundiated the whole of the metropolis and outlying areas. My wife and I had an appointment with a doctor at Asian Hospital and left our condo just 20 minutes after the water came in and damaged 50 to 100 cars trapped in the basement.

But we did not know this, as we went through many of the flooded areas, looked for higher ground and stayed at the Shopwise complex in Sucat for 6 hours. After we learned that the whole metro was rendered a disaster area and everything was closed for the day, we started to look for ways to go back to the condo and found ourselves inside the SM Mall at Bicutan for 4 more hours. Then we continued on but met obstacles along the way and again stayed on for another 4 hours at Market Market Fort Bonifacio. At 9PM we were safe from all the traffic and managed to reach the condo premises, which was in total darkness. That’s when we learned that the whole basement parking was flooded and all the cars were simply trapped. We spent the night at our son’s house at Fort Bonifacio.

Typhoon Ondoy taught us many lessons and we certainly experienced what it is to be really concerned about everything that happens in our community. As Father Melo Diola so very well said, “I was not a Cebuano anymore (nor a Davaoeno or a Kapampangan), I felt I was a Filipino and I had to get out of my way to help my fellow Filipino in Manila.” Other Filipinos felt the same way as they went out of their comfort zones to share what they had. 

From the experience of Ondoy in Metro Manila and Central Luzon, and then Pepeng in Northern Luzon, we were more prepared, as a nation, for Typhoon Santi. In fact, on the maritime scene, we did not have a single incident at sea, or lost any ship or vessel after Santi.

In Mactan, during Ondoy, we had our share of many diverted flights that were originally destined for Manila. We have seen several shortcomings in the management of such diverted flights. Thus we went through a more integrated planning and execution with the airlines, CAAP and the Air Force for the Santi operations. We never expected aircraft evacuations, but were more prepared now for diverted flights and how we could make it more comfortable for stranded passengers, while waiting for the destination airports to open.

But when the late afternoon of Friday, Oct 30, came, aircraft after aircraft started to come to the safety of Mactan-Cebu. By close to 11PM, all the ramps of the airport where filled with PAL, Cebu Pacific and Zest Airline aircrafts. We had to turn down other airplanes and they had to go to Davao and the other airports.

While the North, Remote and South Ramps were completely full, the 6 operating bays of the terminal continued to accept international and domestic flights from Visayas and Mindanao. We only had one divert flight and that was the next day. A PAL B747 from LA had to land in Mactan, refuel and depart for Manila as it opened to traffic after a few minutes.

Central and South Luzon experienced the strong winds of Santi. The decision to evacuate all aircraft from Manila to Mactan was wise and done at the right time. The Mactan Airport Team learned the lessons of past emergencies and applied the correct integrated approach to disaster preparedness. Now we have grown better and have become much wiser. After Santi, Typhoon Tino never came.

Next article: The Present