In the eye and teeth of 'Ondoy'

MANILA, Philippines - Toward midnight when the rains had subsided and a horde of people came streaming down as if from nowhere in the dark and on foot, what caught the eye was how the asphalt overlay had been ripped loose from the concrete road by the rampaging floods.

“Sobrang lakas (too strong),” said an old man from the second floor of Parco Selection, part of a chain of grocery stores that served as emergency evacuation center.

It was the mercifully the close of that Saturday’s 12-hour ordeal inflicted by tropical storm “Ondoy” on residents of a quiet, quaint village - Ateneoville - in Nangka, Marikina near the border of San Mateo, Rizal.

That area had been the scene of destruction and death over the past few days when Ondoy pummeled the suburbs with torrential rains that spawned massive flooding from the swollen Marikina river and claimed hundreds of lives.

What happened in the village was nothing compared to the magnitude of tragedy that befell outlying towns, but it had its share of terror as well as heroism.

Nobody knew it would happen so fast and in such devastating fashion, the floods coming in at about noon and sweeping through the densely populated neighborhoods in San Mateo and Marikina in almost no time.

We remembered two maids frantically knocking at the door with three small children ages five to one in tow, seeking shelter and warning that floods were threatening to engulf the whole place from the nearby Nangka River.

They lived on the other side of the village, on the second row of some 110 units standing on three hectares of land Ateneo de Manila University had apportioned for housing facilities for faculty and staff members of the school six years ago.

It was built at the edge of a precipice near the San Mateo Bridge with a massive 30-foot retaining wall overlooking the river some four stories below.

How the floodwaters would rise in murderous pace from such depth was surreal - but they did, surging menacingly through the wall and bringing mud and debris amid heavy rains. In an instant, waist-high waters were upon us, the strong currents pounding the parked cars and pounding the tenants who had begun to flee their homes.

We looked at the raging floods, my daughter clutching her one-year-old baby, my son holding my four-year-old grandson and two nervous maids gripping half-empty backpacks, and wondered how we would manage to make the 200-meter distance to the grocery store.

Then, as if on cue, the village shuttle - an Isuzu close van that ferries teachers, staff and students to Ateneo daily - came churning in manned by a neighbor, Toti Tan, a FLAG lawyer, who abandoned his house and commandeered the vehicle along with homeowners’ head Benjie Baretto.

“Sakay na, sakay na (Get on)! Children and women first,” he said.

The vehicle forced its way through the floods, listing from side to side and touching off cries from the children inside, and barely made it to the store where men braved the rains, formed a rescue line, and grabbed the passengers one by one while the shuttle was tossed about like a matchbox.

Then it drove back with male homeowners to rescue more stranded tenants. In fact, five youths - Nick Hey, a top UAAP shot putter, his brother JC, Enzo Martin and TJ and Kevin Arabit - stayed behind amid the chaos and went deep into the village. For lack of a watercraft, they improvised and used inflated plastic pools to reach marooned residents.

“I want to go there,” said a young girl in the vehicle, pointing to the inviting, floating pool.

They did bring in a number more residents and the second floor of Parco, whose manager Mario Lopez readily opened the hall, began to fill with evacuees drenched and shivering from the cold.

The long wait for the storm to leave began and in the darkened hall only the lights from mobile phones - like tiny eyes in the dark - were blinking incessantly sending frantic messages.

The Ateneo homeowners association would like to extend its gratitude to the faculty, staff, students and alumni of Ateneo led by university president Fr. Ben Nebres and vice-president for finance Joe Santos, JSA Rementina, for their donations and support, and ASEC Construction for two dump trucks and Bobcat payloader. Some 80 student-volunteers and ROTC cadets helped clear knee-high mud that blanketed the village in the aftermath of the flood and storm. Another group of student-volunteers, college professors and staff also came in Tuesday. Blue Eagle Nonoy Baclao and the Ateneo volleyball squad also came and rendered assistance.

The food donations poured in continuously from the school and alumni, prompting Baretto and the homeowners to share them with other typhoon victims through the San Isidro de Labrador Parish.