{More Flickr photos tagged with Milenyo}



How are you?
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Our families, Arn, and myself are extremely fortunate not to have been directly affected by Milenyo (Xangsane) one of the angriest typhoons ever to hit our shores. I was actually down with the flu the entire day so believe it or not, I slept right through it. Power was out1, the mobile networks were down, and we didn’t have a short wave radio so we had no idea about what was happening outdoors. Arn was busy overseeing some construction being done inside the house and didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until he stepped out to purchase cement and found the roads covered with leaves and fallen/uprooted trees everywhere. When we talked to my mom, we found out that my brother was stranded at work and he told us later on about the horrifying view from his office window in Eastwood: tree branches, sheets of yero, lamp posts, bits & pieces of bright pink MMDA fences and urinals, and (gasp) entire roofs of houses spinning helter skelter in the air. Good grief! Thankfully he managed to drive home safely by 8pm.
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What we also didn’t expect was a Luzon-wide blackout (although Meralco promises to have power fully restored by today. Our area in Quezon City already had electricity back by 5am the next day, Friday. Lights went out at 2pm Thursday so I actually thought that it sure was a looong time to have a blackout until I learned that more than half of the Metro was still in darkness. In fact, a friend who also lives in QC2 didn’t have electricity yet by Friday afternoon, and Arn’s parents in Cainta did not have power restored until Saturday morning. I thought that was the last of it until I heard from cousins in the South today (Sunday!) that their village is still in darkness. Good golly, shades of the early 90s (remember the blackout era?)
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At the end of the day, Arn and I are just thankful that none of our loved ones were harmed.
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One of my blog-friends, Mr. BP, posted a comprehensive list of happenings in the blogosphere after Milenyo’s wrath.
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More Milenyo stories from other blogs:
M for Milenyo (with pics taken at the Mall of Asia)
Marshalls in Manila (with videos taken in Makati)
Balitang Morong (with pics taken in Morong, Rizal)
Meeting Milenyo (with pics taken in Buendia, Roxas Ave, Taft Ave)
Doomsday: A Sneak Preview (with pics)

  1. We were also lucky to have power back by 5am the next day Maybe because we live near all the major TV networks? There was an outage again today but it only lasted for an hour.[ back]
  2. She lives almost beside the ABS-CBN compound to be exact[ back]
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