My first experience with flood was in year 2004. It was December and we just finished our Christmas party in school. We rode on our school’s jeepney and got stranded because the jeepney’s wheel got stuck in the mud and we’re in the middle of nowhere. The driver left us to get help in the neighboring barangay. When he didn’t come back for couple of hours we decided (I’m with my 2 co-teachers) to leave the jeepney before it will get dark. We passed through the flooded road which reached to my waist . That’s my only encounter with flood and it doesn’t scare me at all. I even attended my boyfriend’s (my husband now) company’s Christmas party few hours after that incident.

But my experience of FLOOD few days ago sent me to flood of emotions – panic, feeling out of control, anxiety, uncertainty, and disorientation!

Let me walk you through my journey starting on November 1.

November 1 6:35, at home

It’s the first day of school for the 2nd semester and as early as that we’re ready for school but it’s raining so hard! We don’t have any means of transportation except riding on our motorbike. When the rain stopped for awhile, we sped off to Hyzyd’s babysitter. She’s not expecting us to send Hyzyd that day because she thought that we’re informed that a dam somewhere in Sadao need to be opened that day to pull the lake level down in a timely manner (this is according to Filipino friends they have living in Sadao and Padang Besar but in Thai news I didn’t read about the opening of the dam, they simply put it that tropical depression that dumped two days of constant rain on southern Thailand has caused flooding) and it means FLOOD in the city. I’m shocked with the news and told her we’ll be back after checking this piece of mind-numbing news to our school heads.
8:20-11:10 am
Only few students were present on that day but I still gave them the lessons I prepared on that day. The teachers didn’t talk anything about that dam to be opened but I noticed that parents were swarming the place to get their kids! It’s very alarming but our school head didn’t say anything about suspending the class. I was on my way to printing my students grades when I met my co-teacher. She told me that a friends of hers in Padang Besar was informed by her director to call all her friends in Hatyai City to be ready because at 3:00 pm the dam will be opened. We told our head and our principal about it but it seems that they don’t know anything about that and asked us to just wait for the school’s manager’s further instruction.

12:30 noon

After printing my documents outside my school’s premises (the school’s printer is kinda busy that day), the kindergarten teachers informed me that we could go home because the manager already declared that the afternoon class is suspended as well as the following day. I called my husband and asked him to be home earlier than 3:00 pm because I was worried that the road will be flooded and he couldn’t pass and couldn’t get home . I also informed my brother and friends to be ready and buy survival supplies that will last them for a week or more!

4:00 pm

I waited for my husband for almost 2 hours already and he’s still didn’t arrive at Hyzyd’s babysitter’s place. I called him but he’s not picking up my calls. I was worried to my bones and prayed fervently that my hubby’s just OK. After few minutes, he called me and told me that floods are everywhere and he’s in the shop because the motorbike died after hitting flooded roads. If possible, he asked me if I could just walk with Hyzyd to return to our place before the water goes higher which I complied readily.

10:30 pm

The sudden power failure woke me up and as I looked through our window it seems that only our soi, I mean our lane experienced the failure. All the rest have their lights on. I noticed that our neighbors were out and watching the road. Later did I know that they’re waiting for the flood to come and to wake all the sleeping neighbors.

11:30 pm

We’re already on bed and ready to sleep when I heard our landlady calling my hubby’s name. She informed us that the water is already in our street. Good thing that Hyzyd is already sleeping deeply so I had time to help my hubby. We’re all quick to take care of what needs to be done. My hubby spent most of his time helping our neighbors. To my disbelief, in only 30 minutes, the water already reached our front yard! I haven’t yet transferred all my books and the CDs. My hubby was unscrewing our TV rack when the water reached our living room. There’s no more time to disassemble it so we put it on our dining table hoping that the water will not reach it. No matter how I wanted to carry our bookshelf upstairs, we couldn’t because it’s big, bulky and heavy. It’s hard to leave it along with our other belongings soaked in water. This flood really taught me to let go and let God. It seems unreal!

November 2
8:01 am

Our first floor is fully occupied on the 2nd day of November.

November 3
6:41 am

The water started to recede.

November 4



Our place is strewn with mud, garbage and debris left behind by the flood. I can’t wait to clean this up but our water will not be available until tomorrow.

We’re blessed by our neighbors. Before we could ask for help, they showered us with water,food and milk for Hyzyd. The full force of the emotional flood tends to hit me after the flood and it’s tempting to avail one of those Orlando vacations packages I saw on the net to escape exhaustion, grief, desperation and depression but by God’s grace (and because you prayed for us) we’re coping well. Last night we already have our electricity and internet so we have the time to inform our family back in the Philippines that we’re fine.

It is a good thing that this flood event only come once in a decade.