IT WAS not only in UST where Thomasians felt “Ondoy”—the storm battered Thomasian households in Pasig, Marikina, and Rizal, the areas worst-hit by calamity.
While 3,000 students and professors were stranded inside the campus last September 26, at least 200 Thomasians were affected by heavy flooding, which destroyed homes.
The Central Student Council said initial data from different colleges showed there were about 200 Thomasians living in disaster areas. The number is still expected to increase.
Computer science senior Jerome Pascual and his family stayed at their house’s rooftop all night due to the high waters at the Provident Village in Marikina, where massive flooding killed 58 people.
“[When the flood subsided], we temporarily settled at our grandparent’s house in Tondo. We came back the next day to clean our house filled with mud. We have not yet finished cleaning as of this time,” Pascual said.
Biochemistry junior Alyssa Ajon and her family were staying in a hotel, after “Ondoy” swept their house also in Provident Village.
“We were all restless because almost all our relatives live in the same village, including my grandmother who was staying at their rooftop. We did not even have time to secure most of our belongings,” Ajon said.
Camille Ledesma, an Accountancy junior residing at the Vista Verde village in Cainta, Rizal, said her family was left with only two cars and a few pieces of furniture to “start their lives again.”
Also left homeless was communication arts junior Kim Nicole de Silva. Her family will have to start from scratch after the storm destroyed their house in Malabon.
“Our house was totally wrecked. All our appliances and stuff were soaked in mud. Thank God no one [in our family] was hurt,” De Silva said.
When the UST administration dismissed classes on Saturday morning, journalism junior Keith Casey immediately decided to go home. But after knowing that the flood in Cainta was already above human height, Casey had no choice but to spend the rest of the night on top of a truck.
Meanwhile, behavioral science junior Roudel Topacio was on his way to UST when he learned that classes were suspended. He decided to stay in a convenience store hoping that the flood would subside, only to find out he would have to sleep inside the store.
“I was lucky enough because the people there gave us food,” Topacio said. Adrienne Jesse A. Maleficio, Darenn G. Rodriguez and Cliff Harvey C. Venzon
