The D Spot

As it has been in the past few days, I was as confused as the weather was, and so perhaps were a lot of you. There were times that it would be sunny and bright in one part of the city and wet and gloomy in another part. I have also seen one part of the road wet while traveling, and suddenly before knowing it, the next place we are to is dry and hot.

There is no more consistency, unlike when I was younger, at least 10 years ago, when the seasons were just dry and wet, or was it rainy and sunny. That was why, March-June were months for summer vacation—the students would not stand the heat of the summer sun. June onwards until about August would be the rainy days. Gone were these days, now we can really attest to the validity of the expression “as changeable as the weather”.

Slightly past 9am last Thursday saw another change—one of the rare phenomena in our country—a tornado hit my village—UP/Teacher’s Village, with it’s center a few blocks around my corner, in CP Garcia, which is inside the UP Campus.

I remember it was drizzling, then just suddenly, the outside turned dark and there was a roaring, whistling, whirling, ripping sound. The wind was so strong that the glass windows would break anytime, and all we could hear aside from the wind were galvanized iron roofing of some neighbors being ripped. The rains became stronger, and the dogs started barking, sensitive as they were, and the kitties which were outside at that time were quivering in fright. When I opened the sliding door to let them in, I experienced the full force of the wind—I thought I would be sucked out of this world. Strange, the gods must be very angry, I thought. Was I imagining things?

The sooner that it came, the sooner it went away. It lasted only a few minutes. After the “storm”, it was calm. We went outside to check what was happening—and there was Maginhawa Street, with fallen trees and branches, litter scattered all over, people as surprised as we were. We found out later from the news that a tornado has indeed hit our village, with CP Garcia a few blocks away the most affected. Some parts of the restaurants along the road were damaged, like their chairs flown away, galvanized roofing ripped off and found hanging on electrical wires, some electrical wires left hanging, and a car simply moved (driver must have forgotten to have the hand break in place).

At that time Vince was in UP for his enlistment—he and his friends have experienced the full force of the wind in the open, and saw the fallen trees along CP Garcia on their way home for lunch break. There was a brown out in the whole of UP that was why enrollment has been extended.

And here are some photos.

And the next day, while I was walking down Maginhawa Street with my mom—I found another reason to thank and praise the good Lord for. A few steps before me, a coconut fell from the tree—and that is another story. The street has been cleared by the sweeper who witnessed the incident—she said I was lucky.

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