Let us save the Mother Earth

On the afternoon of November 21 last year, we noticed the flood in the creek was rising but we did not paid attention to it since the rain was not so heavy. Besides we did not expect any low pressure trough to come in the Philippine Area of Responsibility without warning. So, we were too confident and relaxed that the flood would also subside quickly as we used to experience.

But not this time, we were just surprised that the flood water was unstoppably rushing its way to the houses so fast. Things got worse it was getting dark in the evening. We panicked and rattled on what to do or what to save first inside the house at least to elevate our things, especially the electrical appliances, in a safer place to prevent them from possible damage.

I just could not explain what I felt when we were in trouble. It was a mixed emotions of panic, hunger and tiredness as we were all wet and cold. All the neighbours were also busy saving their own things before they were swept away by the flash flood. I just kept praying to God to stop the flood from rising.

The Batoliño home in Leon, Iloilo at 7:00pm on November 21.

Luckily we stored some sand bags outside the house so we put them in all doors to prevent water from rushing inside the house. We did not feel the weight of heavy sand bags when we are in panic and troubled. We only realised that they were heavy after the flood was gone! The irony of being in trouble was that we just did not know where we got the strength despite being tired and anxious. There was no way of giving up.

It took me more than a week to get things back in place after washing and cleaning the mud.

Sometimes disaster in life will come when we least expect it and when we are most relaxed because who would expect the flash flood to come on a fine day. Despite the trouble it has caused us, I am still thankful to God for keeping us all safe and sound. We are also thankful to our local government unit headed by our municipal mayor who quickly rushed to the scene to check and assess every affected household. We also received relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. They just made us feel we were not forsaken during this time of trouble.

The disasters and calamities are just God’s way of awakening our senses for all the abuses we have done to our mother nature. Our earth is suffering badly from all the destructions. Nature is being sacrificed with the rising of industrialisations. It is deeply hurt and damaged because of man being senseless and greedy.

Again, let us all be reminded that God entrusted us to be good and kind stewards of his creation. What evil we do to our nature can be what we will get at the end of the day.