This was the worst typhoon to hit Metro Manila in such a long time. It caused such widespread damage and destruction.
Usually, the nation's capital is spared from the full brunt of the typhoon season due to the mountain range to the east of Metro Manila.
Once a typhoon hits the range -- it weakens and dissapitates. Most of the time, it gets pushed to a northerly course away from the capital.
But this time, the typhoon was able to find a passage through Lucena, Quezon and was able to score a direct hit.
And man, did it S-C-O-R-E.
It left us without water and electricity for like 4 days and nights. We were pretty lucky. Other households didn't have electricity for like a week!!
Ayala Alabang was pretty hard hit.
Numerous huge trees fell over the place-blocking roads and tearing down electric posts wires etc.
And the South Super highway was a disaster area - full of huge commercial billboards downed by the strong winds of Milenyo.
There's still an ongoing controversy now on whether these billboards should be allowed to continue on with their business considering the amount of damage caused on the neighbouring structures. I mean c'mon.. until now.. a lot of them are still hanging all over the place.
I believe that they should still be continue to exist. What the government needs to do is put some sort of commision to regulate, impose rules on construction design etc to avoid this type of destruction again.
Anyway, I'm sure that everyone has their own Milenyo story. Here's mine for posterity's sake :) :
The night before -- NO CLASSES? But it's not raining outside .... Huh? A super typhoon? What about work????
7am -- Should I go to work? Dang -- I gotta go! Have an important meeting this afternoon -- there's no way that I ca't go.......
8am - "Don't pass through Magallanes! (from Rosabel through the celphone) It's impassable!" Dang, they're not allowing vehicles to exit Buendia ave from the SKYWAY --- after 40 mins of added time -- managed to get through
8-930am -- Time to get some work done ----- OMG the lights out -- - All systems. CPU's unusable. Bosses call off work for today... Call Rosabel .."The winds are so strong!!!!!" - Can't feel it here in Makati... what is she talkin' about?
10am - Heading home on the SKYWAY - What the??? -- the rain is going HORIZONTAL!!!!!! Holy cow!!! I hope the car doesn't turn turtle!! - this is serious!!
1030am - Am still on the highway southbound to Alabang ... I count like around 10 huge bill boards -- downed by the winds... they lay on top of houses, other structures... .some of the billboards tear down power, telephone lines and poles.... people are outside checking the damage the storm has brought. Got into the village and -- DESTRUCTION.... Tree destruction -- actually --- most of the houses are still ok.
11am - Manage to get home but barely. There are 6 routes to my house. And 5 of them are impassable! Am seriously considering of leaving my car on one of the routes and then walking home. However, there was one long winded route without a downed huge tree. Home at last.
1130am - I tell my story to the fam. They're like -- "HUH? It's that bad outside??". Home's ok -- no damage.
12pm - We go out to get something to eat and go to the grocery. Not sure if we should go -- - isn't this the EYE of the TYPHOON? The worse ain't over..... Oh well ..... we gotta eat and get some groceries.... Anyways, we're goin to South Supermarket (North Park) to eat. It should be safe over there.
1230pm -- Yum, as usual ...North Park rocx..And then... the winds start to pick up again .... IT STARTS HOWLING!!!! I tell Rosabel and Zachy (We left Cara at home with Yaya Me-an and Yaya Dalia) to go upstairs and start grocery shopping coz' we were worried that the glass windows might break.
1245pm - Rosabel and Zachy go up to SOUTH SUPERMARKET -- BOOM!! Parts of the roof blow off!! Rosabel and Zachy see the sky for a brief moment... then WHOOSH - Rosabel picks up Zachy and rushes down the walkalator heading the opposite direction...
Downstairs, Pops and I are paying the bill and BLANG -- we see the roof of South Supermarket fall on the street below... HOLY MOLEY COW BATMAN -- I knew we should have stayed at home....I go upstairs to shoot some pics of Milenyo's fury on South Supermarket.
Surreal...
Here's a pic of one of the South guys walking gingerly through the grocery coz' it's all slippery from the "inside" falling rain. Everyone was so scared inside the grocery, the wind was howling, people screaming and shouting, supervisors trying to get the situation under control... 'twas like a disaster flick man!
1pm to 3pm - We wait out Milenyo's fury in South Supermarket .. Lots of worried faces... Some cars in the parking lot are hit and damaged by falling roof pieces....Trees bend almost halfway down due to the force of Milenyo's winds. Thanks goodness that houses here in Manila are made of cement!
3pm - We can't wait here anymore. We're worried about Cara and the yayas left in the house. We gotta go home. We start to head home even though the winds are still kinda strong.
330pm - Manage to get back in the village - there are more trees and electric poles down on the ground now! --- how are we going to get electricity back in the next few days?? Or even weeks?? -- and this time -- all 6 routes to the house are BLOCKED!! Luckily, on one of the routes - the trees blocking are movable... so we got out of the car, wade through the floodwaters and rain to pull them aside. Super worried about live electric wires and such.... am so glad that the electricity is out... phew...
4pm - Finally-- we're home.. the large makopa tree at the back of our house fell gently on the roof and caused no structural damage. A pretty big tree branch fell on the roof of our patio -- no considerable structural damage also. How the heck did that snap off? The trunk was so thick!
The aftermath:
*Made our way directly to Makati Supermarket (South was closed) the next day to stock up on supplies - especially water and TIMBAS!! (Water containers). By late morning all big TIMBAS and big water jugs were out of stock.
*Learned to live without electricity and water for the next 4 days. Which meant - a lot of candles, flashlights and stocking up on water from various sources. It was a good thing that Rosabel's parents still had a little running water left.
*ARG -- NO INTERNET!!! and NO DVD's!!
*Learned to take a bath with black water --- (well- dark brown) -- due to the fact that the reservoir ran out -- the water got "soil/sediment dirty". Nothin' toxic but definitely icky.
After the 4th night, the electricity came back on. (We got so used though to living without lights that we continually forgot to turn on the lights while we were in the bathroom. "Oops! There's light na pala!" Hehehehe!)
Man ...we were so so happy to have light once more..... words just couldn't express how relieved we were......
The water didn't normalize and clear up till like a week after.
Boy, we were so lucky that we were safe.
Thank you God for taking care of our family during Typhoon Milenyo.
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