Manila street vendor Zenaida Cuerda expressed her despair on Thursday, stating she is "back to zero" after floodwaters destroyed the food she sells for a living and inundated her home. She is among the thousands in the Philippine capital grappling with the aftermath of relentless rain, exacerbated by Typhoon Gaemi's intensification of the seasonal monsoon.
"All my capital is gone. I have nothing now," Cuerda told AFP, wiping away tears outside the concrete house she shares with her sister. "I don't have a husband anymore. I can't rely on my children because they have their own families," she lamented. At least 20 people perished in Manila and surrounding provinces due to the heavy rain, which triggered floods and landslides.
Over 12 inches of rain deluged the capital within 24 hours up to 8am (0000 GMT) on Thursday. Floodwaters rapidly rose to chest-height in parts of the city, immobilizing vehicles and compelling residents to navigate using small boats. When the waters subsided, they left behind streets littered with mud, rubbish, and debris.
As AFP journalists toured the city on Thursday, mattresses, wooden furniture, and bags of rubbish were stacked outside houses and shops as residents began the cleanup. At the pharmacy where he works, Pedro Parado was still processing the abruptness of the flooding. "We couldn't believe that the floods would be that severe. Everyone here was taken aback," Parado, 40, recounted. "When the rain intensified, we moved upstairs. We carried all our belongings, including the medicines, to keep them dry."
President Ferdinand Marcos joined the relief efforts on Thursday, distributing food parcels to the most affected, who are often the city's poorest. Marcos noted that more areas were flooded compared to when Typhoon Ketsana, known locally as Tropical Storm Ondoy, struck in 2009. "The volume of water was not as severe as Ondoy, but the impact was greater than Ondoy," Marcos stated in a neighborhood near Manila Bay. "This is the reality of climate change."
Despite previous flooding experiences, Cuerda believed she would be spared this time after authorities deepened the river beside her house. "We really thought we wouldn't be flooded," she said. "Everything happened so quickly. We're now back to square one. It's always like this."
