Aftermath of the typhoon

Jet-lagged, concerned for our friends, and grateful to be home—we've been fortunate beyond all belief. Until today, we had no idea how really bad the flooding in parts of Manila has been. The neighborhood we were staying in managed the torrential rains fairly well and the streets were passable by Sunday morning when we headed to the airport. What a scene. It had been totally down the day before and was stiflingly hot, packed with weary stranded passengers who were oddly calm and patient. Despite only partial emergency power and no computers, Japan Air Lines' posse of impeccably dressed young women, clicking through the dim airport in high heels, shifted us to a flight that would make our Tokyo connection and didn't even lose our baggage.

Unfortunately, our Adamson friends have not had it that easy. Charles has managed to contact President Banaga. Here's an excerpt from his e-mail response:

"I was on my way to a meeting and did not reach the venue. My new car was totally submerged
in water and swept away by the flood. We were able to leave it just intime and went up to the third floor of a building with 50 other people. We slept there that night and walked home the following day. Very frightening experience! But we are safe. Fr. Kiko [VP for Academic Affairs] got stuck on the road too and he slept in his car that night. Good the flood waters did not enter his car. The next day he came home.

Adamson suffered much. The gym floor was the worst hit. It is made of imported wood and it got submerged in water. If I am not mistaken that cost us something like 3 million pesos around 7 years ago. Many servers and computers on the ground floor too. The art gallery was half way deep in water as well as all the computer labs and offices under the theater. All the buildings had water except the building where my office is.

The creek [that runs through campus] overflowed. In the morning they found a driver dead along the street in front of my office. He suffered a heart attack as he was stuck in his car in the flood waters. They found him in the morning.

400 students and professors were inside the campus on Saturday and stayed there during the night. They were lucky. If they went home they would have been swept away. They discovered that some of their houses were under water when they returned. We have no news about many of our students and faculty yet as many phones do not work and people are still stranded and unreachable. . . . They said that the rain that fell in 6 hours is equivalent to one month! Until now there is no electricity in many areas and some streets are still under water. There is another storm on the way I heard! . . . . Fr. Nonong and the VCSR staff have started relief operations in coordination with Caritas Manila. Adamson has become a relief center. Classes have been canceled for a week but we told the students and employees to come and clean up the university and volunteer at the relief center. . . . We are still lucky despite the damage suffered by Adamson."

As soon as bank accounts can get set up, dePaul people will be mounting a relief effort for our partners. We'll keep you posted.