Nightmares

PAREDES

I woke up to the sound of rain suddenly pounding on the roof, booming thunder and blasts of lightning that caused a short brownout. I grabbed the rechargeable flashlight from the headboard and went out to check if we had left a window open or if there was any water leaking through the ceiling.

As the downpour came even stronger, I filled the buckets of water in the bathroom thinking that usually after heavy rain, water from the tap turns slightly rusty in color or, worse, stops running at all.

Fearing another power failure, I charged my other flashlights, radio, tablet and other gadgets to make sure I have them ready in case I wake up with no electricity in the morning. And, of course, I have to write this column in advance.

It’s just the usual preps I do whenever there is a thunderstorm or a typhoon. Nowadays, we don’t know what could come our way as the weather becomes more and more unpredictable in our age of climate change.

Right now, on the other side of the globe, people hunker down or bug out as the category five “monster hurricane” Irma causes massive devastation in the islands of the Caribbean. As it heads towards Florida, residents there are forced by local authorities to evacuate, causing an exodus of cars that clog the highways. It must have been a dilemma: to bug out in your car yet end up stuck in the traffic jam as you wait for the storm or stay home and ride it out.

Those few people who stayed did so to make final preparations to secure their homes. They board up their glass doors and windows with corrugated tin roof sheets or plywood. They blocked possible entry points of flood waters with sand bags. They wrapped valuables in plastic to make them waterproof in case flooding from storm surge reach their homes. They have already stocked up on food, water and gas.

Even before the storm hit, governments in such countries never wasted time to brace for what was billed to be the strongest storm that ever hit the Atlantic in history. Disaster teams are mobilized, food packs, water, fuel trucks and mobile power generator sets prepositioned anticipating disaster of catastrophic proportions. Crowds start to fill up shelters that have been fully stocked and equipped with own power sources.

In Miami, the mayor himself join police officers go house-to-house in coastal communities to convince those who refuse to leave their homes. First responders and volunteer groups plan for worst scenarios, with rescue vehicles and equipment already prepositioned.

It’s an amazing feat of disaster prepping. Authorities are able to orchestrate evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents, which included tourists and a lot of elderly retirees, turning these normally cheerful and crowded tropical beach towns into no man’s land. So far reports of casualties are very minimal compared to the thousands that died when Super Typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines.

It’s proof of how critical are early warning and immediate preparations in minimizing the number of casualties. It also shows how important is the culture of disaster preparedness as demonstrated not just by government agencies but by families and individuals who do not rely totally on government for provisions and help.

As Irma batters the Bahamas and some parts of Cuba on its way to Florida, two more hurricanes are trailing behind heading to the same direction.

This, too, is unprecedented. People usually prepare for only one “event,” as meteorologists call it now. The biggest question right now is how residents in islands that have recently been nearly wiped out by the monster hurricane will be able to cope with two more. Meteorologists say that this strange occurrence of three hurricanes almost simultaneously moving in the same route is the result of the recent rise in temperature in the oceans, causing water to rise and form into massive hurricanes or super storms. As the planet goes hotter and hotter, we can expect these “events” to happen more and more frequently and at shorter intervals.

We can recall how we also went through monster hurricanes like Yolanda, Ruping and Nitang which not only devastated our country but killed thousands of people. Back then, I don’t remember many people boarding up their homes and stocking up food and water as they brace for the coming storm. Most of us did not even evacuate as there were not too many reliable shelters in the first place. So we preferred to ride it out not fully aware of the catastrophe that was waiting to happen.

I learned my own hard lessons from Super Typhoons Ruping and Nitang. It wasn’t just being able to ride out the flash floods and strong winds. It was also an ordeal how to survive the aftermath, when the grid goes down, running water cease to exist, and when people are forced to loot to be able to eat. And the worst thing is to find that you are left on your own as help don’t seem to come when you need it most.

The rain has stopped and I could now go back to bed with the thought that out there in the opposite side of the planet, people are having the same nightmares I went through twice before.