17th of December, year 2011. What seemed to be a typical rainy night turned out to be disaster Cagayan de Oro City never saw coming. Day breaks and the extent of the damage has gone full circle. Things you thought you'd only see on TV, wrong. Damaged power lines, effectively cutting all power in many areas for a week; ruptured water pipes, greatly reducing our water supply for almost a month; wrecked homes, displaced families, and a horrific number of casualties. Our neighborhood as well as others, wasn't spared, considering we were suppose to be living on 'elevated areas'. 3-ft deep muddy water managed to find its way to us. We all ended up shoveling mud and salvaging things for almost 3 days. People living in the lower areas had the worst of it. Ever since, you could hear requiems all over the city. I guess I could safely assume that Northern Mindanao is somewhat less crowded these days. With over a thousand dead, and a thousand still missing. The recent flash flood was a real wake-up slap to its citizens.


The dead will be remembered, and the living will never forget.