8/2/2019 We Could Do Nothing
1/1
*Ceciles father, Fernando Rivera
*Cecile being interviewed at Venizas house
WE COULD DO NOTHING
It was all because of water, without abashment, this ishow the
17-year old baffled maiden, Cecile Rivera, expressed herthoughts
during our interview. In fact, it was arduous for us todeliberately
persuade her that moment just to hear herencouraging yet
heart-sickening story.
According to her, 11:30 PM when the water abruptly
diffused to the different houses settled in Bayug Island.
Cecile,together with his 47-year old mother, Lolita, thought that
theflood wont get higher than knee-level so they merely initiated
totransfer their valuable things to the elevated portion of
theirincomplex, one-story house. Unfortunately, it was not how
theythought it would be. After 5 short minutes, the water
suddenlyrose to the level which barely made them breathe. Her
48-year oldfather, Fernando, who was then widely awake due to
thecommotion made by people when the water was still
rising,directly took Ceciles three siblings to the attic of an
abandonedhouse passing through a sufficient hole that let them get
inside.Left standing on a pile of hollow blocks which was about
to
collapse due to the waters current, Cecile and her mother
anxiously awaited there to be rescued andwitnessed how the flood
swept away the roof, the walls together with their precious things
and the
bases of their house one by one, nothing was left.At least no
one died, right?, we asked.Wait until you
hear the whole story, she answered with a synthetic smile.
Itwent this way, after they witnessed that wrecking event; she
gothit by a log which outbalanced her. Fortunately, she
un-consciously grabbed her mothers shirt while her mother
wasdepending their lives on a slim tree. Her father directly
came
back and helped them. They all got through the attic
togetherwith her uncles wife and since the space was so small for
them,her father destroyed a portion of the roof and let them go
up.
Meanwhile, her grandmother and cousin were still on the
otherunsteady house so her uncle entrusted his wife to them andwent
to save them both. The plan was to get them both together
but her grandmother insisted to stay a little bit longer to
getsome nice clothes she could save. Instead of giving her hand
tolet her son save her, she gave him a bag of rice and told him
toget her grandchild, who was together with her, on the roof
firstand will go with him when hell come back to save her
too.Disastrously, she never had a chance to land her feet on
theroof. When her son was trying to come back to save her, theflood
swept her house together with her. However, she managed to cling on
a papaya tree! On theroof, the rest of them could do nothing; it
would be fatal to save her from the slim tree. Theycontinuously
shouted, Gunit lang jud ma! Gunit lang jud la!, but the tree bent
and a hugecollapsed mango tree was coming towards her. Yes, they
witnessed it, Ceciles grandmother wasgone as the huge tree vanished
from their sight. There was nothing they could do, or else, the
onewholl save her grandmother would also lose his/her life.
She was trying to stop her tears as she ended her tragic story
but she maintained a smile thatironically showed how sorrowful she
was. Her humorous personality didnt fade away though. Shecontinued,
You know what happened next? Light then appeared, and let us
realize how catastrophicwas the night before that. We were so
hungry so we went down and looked for food. We saw a caseof beer,
my father and uncle started to drink it so everyone did. By eating
coconut meat, coconut
juice, beer and various kinds of edible stuffs the flood has
brought to us, we survived until noonThen the rescue team reached
us.
