Those sleepless nights

The last time I had sleepless nights because of ravaging typhoons was in 1995. I was only twelve years old then when typhoons Mameng and Rosing struck the country, and I couldn't sleep well because there was no electricity and the rains and winds were pounding our roofs intensely.

Twenty-five years after, I experienced the same restless feeling on the deep night of November 11 and the wee hours ofNovember12whenTyphoonUlyssescrosseditspathover the entire Luzon island with Central Luzon being a direct hit of the severe tropical storm.

When our house was not yet renovated and did not have a second floor, we would usually suffer up to waist-deep flooding in our barangay.

Even as a young girl that I was back then, I would automatically panic and start removing our clothes and things in the cabinets which can get wet when the waters start rising and submerging our tiny house.

Back then, the mere sound of heavy rains would right away give me that fear of flooding and being evacuated from our house.

My parents would usually take us to our grandparents' house which has a second floor, and being away from them at the time of such calamities even adds up to our wary as children.

Last week, I woke up when caused by the strong winds.

After that, it was impossible for me to go back to sleep, and I suddenly remembered these feelings I had when our house was not yet flood-proof.

While our present house is more stable and is already flood-proof, I still couldn't help but feel worried just hearing the loud swooshing sound of the torrential rains and winds as Ulysses was battering Central Luzon.

I was waiting for it to stop, and was praying hard that no one will get hurt with the violent winds and rains being dumped by the typhoon.

We were lucky we did not suffer power outage as in some nearby provinces and cities.

We also did not suffer from flooding anymore since our area was already rehabilitated with higher elevation as a way to prevent perennial flooding which we suffered back then.

In a way, the way our old city used to suffer from high waters each time a typhoon breaks in has been lessened as the years passed.

Drainages and flood control projects have also been put in place and disaster control measures are also prepared in the instance of an emergency.

As a Fernandino, I have seen how we have improved in terms of disaster preparedness and resilience.

In a way, the efforts that were started by the past administrations and now intensified by Mayor Edwin Santiago have certainly paid off.

While it was sleepless night last Thursday, it was a worriless one to say the least.

I heard a smashing sound