How Typhoon Carina Affected Our Family

For the first time in my 38 years of existence, I experienced severe flooding that prompted us to move to the second floor of the apartment building. This is in a village where we moved to in December last year. Though the area itself has a history of flooding, we still decided to rent the place because it's elevated.

It had been more challenging because first and foremost, we needed to care for our baby. My husband took care of our stuff as we received notice from the caretaker that morning of July 24th, Wednesday. He said we might need to move to the second floor because the floodwaters have started creeping into our garage.

Here's the Emergency Evacuation Checklist I've saved:

• Important documents and IDs
• Keys
• Diapers
• Feeding bottle with water
• Wet wipes
• Water spray
• Nursing cover
• Laptop
• Birdies
• Eyeglasses 
• Wallet
• Phone
• Charger
• Umbrella
• Jacket
• Cap
• Flashlight
• Rechargeable fan
• Salbabida
• Clothes
• Undies and panty liner
• Hygiene kit
• Rice
• Rice cooker
• Food
• Electric kettle
• Health grill
• Plates
• Utensils
• Cups
• Whistle

I'm grateful for our neighbor who let us in to her studio unit when she saw us in the hallway. We were planning to spend that day in the common area/vacant unit but she accommodated us so we could feel more comfortable. She also cooked and shared dinner not just with my family but with others who also had to move from the ground floor.

The next day, we woke up to some good news. Though the flood was still hip-level on the street, it has subsided on our ground floor which allowed the caretaker to clean our unit. He just had to bring out the things that got soaked which unfortunately included our son's play pen. The brighter side though, is that we now have more space which allowed our son to practice more of independent walking.

On July 26th, our street was already accessible by riders so we were able to have grocery items delivered. We just need more time to do all the laundry and dry some of our stuff outside even if it's already been a week since the flood happened.

ABS-CBN News published yesterday that 39 people died due to the combined effects of the habagat, and typhoons Carina and Butchoy according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The series of weather disturbances affected more than 1.3 million families or 4.8 million persons in 17 regions. There are 108,083 individuals who remain in 557 evacuation centers, of which more than half are in Central Luzon and Metro Manila.