The death toll from the flash floods on Sunday rose to at least 711 in Mindanao. Hundreds remained missing.
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said it was a combination of factors that led to the tragedy.
“It’s unusual for Mindanao; a month’s worth of rainfall fell in only a few hours; people were already asleep; the storm hit pineapple plantations that don’t absorb water; it was high tide and waterways were heavily silted. It was unprecedented and overwhelming,” said PRC secretary general Gwendolyn Pang.
In Cagayan de Oro, the bodies, many bloated and bluish and frozen in grotesque poses, continued to pile up in funeral homes. Senior Supt. Gerardo Rosales, city police chief, said 474 bodies had been recovered. A total of 482 persons remained missing.
Officials said 214 died in Iligan, 15 in Bukidnon, five in Compostela Valley and three in Zamboanga del Norte.
The government and the Red Cross appealed for help to feed, clothe and house more than 35,000 people huddled in evacuation centers as soldiers battled to recover bodies.
Click to donate! I used Paypal. Safe, fast and secure.
According to the Iligan Bloggers, the Paypal Donation ID for Iligan is singcol.inquisitor@gmail.com.
For Cagayan de Oro, send to francis.siason@gmail.com through the Cagayan De Oro Bloggers. “Proceeds will be donated and delivered to Xavier University Cagayan de Oro where the members of CDOBloggers are planning to volunteer. Thank you and God Bless.”
I called my mother yesterday and she said the Hagonoy town market (including our store, and most of our goods for sale) is now underwater. Water inside the house now reaches her neck, and the water outside can completely submerge a person. My parents and my lola still have food and drinking water, but there’s still no electricity and running water’s scarce. They can’t leave the house. Prayers, please. :(
Really bad storm yesterday. J and I were in his parked car around lunch and we felt the car rock as the wind slammed against us. Didn’t go to work, couldn’t. (Office work was suspended anyway, but I heard some office mates had continued with their shoots like a bunch of crazy people.) No electricity. Cell phone dying by midday. Back in Bulacan, my parents had to deal with the chest-high flood outside the house and the waist-high water inside and the fact that our refrigerator was submerged. I could replace the refrigerator, but I heard the frustration and the exhaustion made my father cry and that really broke my heart. So fuck you, Pedring. Fuck you very much.
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But today’s another day. (My parents said pretty much the same thing.) So yes – I have a poem in the fifth volume of Stone Telling called “Prayer“. Read and share, if you are so inclined. Lots of fantastic authors here.
And I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately! I’ve finished two memoirs. In Pyongyang, Guy Delisle talks about his stay in the North Korean capital with equal snark and sadness. For such a dark topic, Delisle actually manages to keep the tone light till the last page. There is a degree of outrage, but it is dampened with humor. I guess it’s a defense mechanism – if he allowed himself to be affected by the apparent brainwashing and injustice going on around him, he’d go insane. (Hell, I would.) Or end up dead. (He did bring a copy of Orwell’s 1984 to his hotel, and even had the audacity to lend it to his North Korean guide. Ha!)
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a brave introspection of her relationship with her father, his life and his death, and how his secrets had affected her family. And oh, what beautiful, vivid language to go with the art!
Some (ongoing) series that I would recommend:
Chew – Set in a post-bird flu world, where chicken and other bird meat are declared illegal, and the Food and Drug Administration is kick-ass and the Department of Agriculture has sexy covert operatives. (I know, right?!) Tony Chu, a police officer, gets hired by the FDA after a chicken buy-bust operation. He is a cibopath, a person who gets information about the origins and circumstances of everything he eats. (Except beets. He gets nothing from beets.) He uses this ability to solve crimes, so yeah, sometimes he has to eat a severed limb. Or worse.
The Unwritten – A story about stories! That is all I’m going to say! Very engrossing.
Runaways – Set in a world where superheroes and villains are a regular occurrence. (Especially New York.) A group of teenagers discover that their parents are members of a crime ring called The Pride. I think the quality is inconsistent – the series kept changing writers and illustrators – but I guess I’ll keep reading. I’ve heard this series is on hiatus.
Bone – Premium kids’ literature right here. Funny and exciting and I can’t wait to read the entire series.
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How much does a good refrigerator go for these days?
I wasn’t too fond of this series last year, but later in the season the acting and writing got better, scenes got to that level of dark they needed and deserved, and now Pretty Little Liar‘s among those shows I look forward to seeing every week.
Ezra still bores me though. Jesus.
Ugh. Go away, Ezra.
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And that’s all I can say about the weekend. Oh wait, I also finished the first season of Justified (very good), and we’re also almost done with the third season of Damages (Patty Hewes is less crazy this time around). With the city flooded, there’s really nothing to do but stay indoors, sleep, read, monitor the flood via Twitter, or watch something entertaining.
I wasn’t able to go home for my mother’s birthday. I am majorly pissed. I monitored the news and made phone calls, hoping I might make it home. But the flood was already thigh-high outside our home on Saturday and there was water inside the house and it won’t stop raining so my mother decided that it’d be better if I just stayed put.
I wish we could move. I wish we could move the river.
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Before that, Thursday night/Friday morning was a bit crazy. For a while there the office looked like an evacuation center. There were reports of five-foot high floods in the metro, and roads were either unpassable or congested. (When we say “traffic jam” we mean “parking lot-like”.) Fortunately, I was able to go home to the condo in my jacket and flip-flops because the flood outside the office was only ankle-deep.
Jaykie and I meet up on Thursday nights, and he wanted to go that night, but Chino Roces cor. Vito Cruz Extension looked like this from 9:30 pm to I-don’t-know-what-time-really-because-I-fell-asleep-waiting.
I suddenly woke up at around 2 in the morning and saw from my window that the streets were clear. I texted Jaykie this, as a joke, thinking he was asleep anyway, but he replied and said he’d go pick me up. Before I gave him the go-signal, I called MMDA’s hotline number (136) to check if the roads he would take were flooded. They weren’t, so we met up, had food from Mini-Stop, downed some Gilbey’s, and went to sleep.
Yesterday was a Blog Action Day to save Philippine corals, in light of distressing revelations regarding the extent of illegal coral/turtle harvesting and export. To participate in the attempt to raise awareness, I sent an open invitation to Filipino authors to participate in a special edition of the #RP612fic event, and tweet micro fiction stories with a coral/marine theme. (Note: We’ll still be holding the normal #RP612fic on independence day, and the 13th as well.)
It was a lot of fun (even if my Internet cut out midway through) and I think that we managed to entertain folks on Twitter (and confuse a few–but if we make them ask questions, that’s a form of raising awareness too!) and the Save Philippine Seas organizers took note of our stories.
Read the bill. Read the whole goddamn thing. Just take a few minutes and sit down and, if you’re a hardcore Catholic, clear your mind of biases and read the words. It’s actually short, and phrased simply, more understandable and less confused than its previous incarnations.
Jaykie heard about it from Jme. Here’s the event announcement on Facebook. There’s going to be another round next Saturday (March 26), turns out, so if you have anything you want to donate to the sale, or if you have the time and money to buy some items, read up. :)
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Japan, and many have lost their homes and livelihood because of the tsunamis and fires that it caused. Right now, numerous earthquakes and aftershocks are still happening, and people from various parts of the world have extended their hands to help.
We’re a group of fans from the Philippines and we’re planning on having a garage sale. If you have a…nything that you are willing to donate (CDs, DVDs, magazines, clothes, notebooks, etc…), please click that you are attending to this event.We will arrange a date and a place where you can drop off or send your donations to, and we will inform you as soon as we have decided on it.
All of the donations will be sold during the garage sale (date and place are still being discussed), and all the proceeds will go to Japan (to be donated to International/ Japan Red Cross). Small things make big changes. Let’s start with what we can do.
We’re hoping for your kind participation.
ありがとうございます！ / Arigatou gozaimasu! / Thank you very much!
DONATIONS DROP OFF:
Luke Granada’s House – 6 Malinis St. UP Village
Jamie Lynn’s House – Veterans Village (can meet up at Trinoma or SM north just contact her 09279649624)
Meet-up at McDonald’s PRC (Adelle) – Makati (Note: After office hours – 6PM)
(more soon to be announced)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
[2011.03.14]
For those who are planning to sell their stuff. Kindly send me an email — adelleuy@gmail.com —- so that I can properly account all the items.
Also, if you have any urgent questions please send us an sms at
0922-820125-0 or 0927-964-9624
By now I’m sure you’re all aware of the devastation in Japan, and if you’re looking for a way to lend a helping hand I’m Sketching for Japan.
I’ll be taking $5 sketch commissions over the next few days (or weeks, as long as it takes). $4 out of every $5 paid will go to fund relief efforts in the Pacific. Your sketch will be done and sent via email within 24 hours of payment. I also have something BIG planned as an added “Thank You” to everyone who participates in this fundraiser.
Send me a Note with your sketch details and I’ll message you back, pronto. Or e-mail me at james_macaspac@yahoo.com
If you’re not interested in a sketch, I would strongly urge you to give what you can on your own. Every little bit helps.
Thanks so much in advance, guys.
Hey, Jme! I want to join, but let me replenish my PayPal account first. (I think I only have 95 cents left, hehe.)
Anyway, Jaykie and I went to the sale at 6 Malinis St. UP Village yesterday.
I got these:
sweater (P250); bag (P30)
Jaykie got this:
"how to draw comic book heroes and villains" (P80)
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In other, mediocre news: I got a haircut at this salon near the Q. Ave MRT station, and while my hair was being cut a team from GMA came in and spoke with the owner. Apparently Kay Susan Tayo was going to shoot a segment there (something about tsismis and kwentong barbero). Susan Enriquez and Cesar Apolinario were sitting behind me as they waited for the crew to figure out blocking, watching my hair get blow-dried. How tantalizing. There was a camera trained on my hair at one point; I suppose they would use it as a filler shot?
Eliza Victoria 
