Habagat

It's that time of year when monsoons abound and flooding is now becoming a norm in the Metro.

It all started in 2009 when Typhoon Ondoy happened and I shared about my experience here. From then on, flood after flood hit our country with the recent one just last year--also during the same month as this one.

In 2009, Marikina was badly hit. In 2012, Habagat caused a landslide at Commonwealth and flooded Roxas Blvd most especially that swanky hotel in the CCP Complex. This time around, it's Cavite, Laguna, Las Pinas and Paranaque that took the brunt of the habagat brought about by typhoon Maring.

It has become a running joke (although some people are beginning to take it seriously) that everyone should buy rubber boats and keep it for emergency purposes. Even for areas that are not usually susceptible to flooding are no longer spared. I dread the time that even our area, which is quite high, would also be submerged. If that happens, all of Manila should already be underwater.

This morning, I woke up at 3AM with rains literally pounding our roof. My staff began to text me one by one that they will be unable to report to work due to floods. I still got ready for work and began to monitor the flood situation through @SkywaySOMCO (and witnessed Lady Gaga's and Perez Hilton's twitter war at the same time). I usually take the "At Grade Level" of SLEX but after reading conflicting reports about flooding, I took the Skyway and arrived in the office within 30 minutes. My colleagues started to arrive in trickles and we began to hear of other offices and banks that called off work. By 8AM, our president suspended operations but most of us stayed letting the floods subside. I went home a couple of hours later after doing a bit of work. I freaked out when I saw in my FB and Twitter feeds about the flooding at the Sta. Rosa area of SLEX and hoped that the tail end won't reach Alabang. Fortunately, I made it home in decent time.

I've made it a habit of keeping an extra change of clothes, slippers, water and crackers in the car whenever typhoon season starts. I do not want to be caught unprepared again although I hope to have an amphibious car someday if  global warming should continue.