As of yesterday, NDCC (National Disaster Coordinating Council) had report 246 death toll due to typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) and as I write this article the number of lives taken by the typhoon is still rising and many are still missing.  Ondoy came to Greater Manila and Luzon with wind 85 kph and gusts of 100kph, not really strong for a typhoon.  But really hit the Manila and Luzon area is the heavy rain fall bought by the typhoon.
Ondoy, showered Metro Manila with a one month amount of rain in just a day!¬† The entire metropolitan Manila is 80% underwater, and according to Historians that was the most disastrous typhoon ever hit Metro Manila for at least 400 years.¬† The nine-hour deluge on Saturday (October 26, 2009) turned Manila’s roads into raging rivers, sweeping away cars, properties and even lives that comes into its way. The deluge left some areas of the sprawling city of 12 million people under up to six meters (20 feet) of water, forcing the government to declare a “state of calamity” that allowed authorities to use emergency funds.
Seeing Metro Manila and some part of Luzon during and after the typhoon is heartbreaking.  Dead bodies are found hanging on electric lines, river banks, sidewalks and I had seen on the news a body of a baby hanging on the branches of a tree.   You see miles and miles of people lining up in for food in evacuation centers.   Hard-earned properties were trampled, it seems so hopeless but the word hopeless is not in the vocabulary in Pinoy’s dictionary.
