My most memorable typhoon experience happened on June of 2008. Typhoon Frank –– the typhoon that caused our country over 4 billion pesos worth of damages –– was wreaking havoc in the Philippines. I was not injured or anything. But I could have been. And that thought scared me out of my mind and had me shaking for about a week afterwards.
This was my first real typhoon experience. I’ve never actually to swim in chest-high water or anything like that. One of my most memorable experiences was during the Millenio Typhoon, where the santol tree in our garden fell down right before my eyes. No one was hurt. Another experience was when our air conditioner got struck by lightning and had burst into flames. Thank God we saw it before it could do any damage other than frying up our air conditioner.
Anyway, the story when I woke up to raging winds–– and when I mean raging, I mean it’s like The Exorcist and Carrie combined. Open doors banged closed (loudly). Our glass windows were heavy, but the wind managed to get most shut (and they shut rather loudly, too) –– and moderate rain.
My mother was in something of a dilemma. See, we don’t really use gas stoves. We had one, of course, but we prefer to use our electric stove, and that was used rarely. We had adopted a “take out or delivery for dinner” lifestyle, partly because of the fact that we were lazy and disliked washing dishes, so we didn’t really see the need to stock up on LPGs (we do now). Back to the story. That day, my mom couldn’t connect to most restaurants. We tried nearly everything that had delivery. McDonald’s, Jollibee, KFC, Kenny Rogers, Pizza Hut, etc. No one was picking up. To make matters worse, the power was out. Our freezer and refrigerator were already defrosting. We had no way to cook.
Knowing this, of course, made me all the more hungry. (This was, apparently, a psychological thing.) The gruesome rumbling in my tummy made me crave a large, juicy burger. Preferably with melted cheese, lettuce, and really red tomatoes. And onion rings on the side. My mother was craving a Big Mac. I wanted to buy something from Brothers Burgers. So we decided to travel to Tomas Morato and see if McDonald’s and Brothers Burgers were open.
Our house was really close to Tomas Morato, so we walked every time we had to go someplace there (why waste expensive gas?). We took two umbrellas, one for me and one for mom (big mistake). The wind was still pretty strong, but we thought we could handle it. It wasn’t raining that much, either.
When we first stepped out of the house, what struck us first was how dark it was. It looked like an hour before sunrise, but it was nearly 11 o’clock in the morning. Then, as we went down the street, we remarked about how strange seeing our street so deserted. We were the only ones walking on the normally busy street, and there were no cars. Add in turbulent winds and erratic rain and you’ve got yourself a really spine chilling setting. We tried to make light of it, even humming the theme to The Twilight Zone. But I was really creeped out.
We reached Tomas Morato and saw that almost every establishment was deserted. Again, there were hardly any cars in the street, and no people milling around. Our first human contact outside our house was the guard at Jollibee, who told us that the store was closed. Right across the street from Jollibee was Brothers Burgers and it was closed. We decided to try and see if McDonald’s was open, so we crossed the street again and kept walking. After just passing 7-Eleven, right in front of the Nokia store, the wind suddenly blew us away. I can’t even describe it, except to say that it was so strong, we were literally being dragged away by our umbrellas. My mother hung on to one of the parking posts, and I hung on to my mother. My arm was outstretched because I hadn’t let go of my umbrella yet. Needless to say, if a car happened to speed by us, I wouldn’t have my cherished arm today.
When the wind calmed down, Mom hauled our asses inside the 7-Eleven, where a group of people were waiting for the rain to stop. Another stranger entered the store, soaking wet. And we all just waited there for the rain to stop, me shaking, my mom fussing over me, our umbrellas ruined.
It was a really scary experience, but it made me realize how fortunate I am. All I have to say is I’m extremely lucky if that’s the most memorable thing that ever happened to me in a typhoon. I can’t even imagine the people who have lost their homes or worse, their loved ones.
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