Marikeños are used to floods, but it doesn’t make them any less devastated

MANILA, Philippines – In Malanday Elementary School, children played and waded through water that accumulated in a driveway in front of the gate. It was getting dark, and white lights that could have been taken for moonlight on the ripples of the water, upon a closer look, turned out to be emergency lights.

The children are here too early. It was the evening of Wednesday, July 24, supposedly the middle of the school’s final week of silence, because the opening of the new school year was set for July 29. Instead, they are here to evacuate, together with their parents who are scolding them to stop playing in the floods.

Despite this being an evacuation center, the water had reached it. There was no electricity and the water pressure in the faucets was weak.

The onslaught of the southwest monsoon or habagat, which was enhanced by Typhoon Carina (Gaemi), happened so quickly for residents of Malanday, a village bordering the Marikina River. By the time the sun set at around 6 pm, the river level had gone up to at least 20.6 meters. Marikina was one of various areas in Metro Manila that was seriously flooded Wednesday.

As of 7 am on Thursday, July 25, the Marikina River receded to 15.4 meters.

All of those Rappler spoke to at the Malanday and Sto. Niño evacuation centers on Wednesday said they have been evacuated here before. They had are used to the floods, and were more prepared every time. But it was never any less difficult nor devastating, especially as the swiftness of the rising water level reminded them of previous disasters, Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009 and Typhoon Ulysses in 2020.

More than 600 families or 5,000 individuals flocked to Malanday Elementary School for shelter, bringing it up to capacity. Meanwhile, more than 360 families or around 2,000 individuals evacuated to Sto. Niño Elementary School.

Malanday resident Edelwina Jesalva sat in a tent with her three sons and husband on Wednesday night at the Malanday school’s covered court. For dinner, they ate rice and fish that they just had enough time to prepare before evacuating their home.

That morning, Jesalva and her husband went to work as fish vendors at their local market. It was raining, but it