We don’t really have these here in the Philippines but another alternative to housing some of the displaced families (due to Typhoon Ondoy) is to have them temporarily stay in motorhomes. Those with units not being used can donate or sell motorhomes for immediate use. This is temporary though but is still a better alternative than a sloppily shanty built along riverbanks, which contributed to the flooding in the 1^st place.

It was 10:30am and we were already running late for Manu’s swim class.  I had concerns on pushing through with it because: (1) It was raining and (2) the little boy was coughing every now and then.  In the end though I decided to give it a go.

When I stepped out of the building, the rains were already pouring hard.  Made me wanna go back and cancel but since I’ve already blow-dried my hair what the heck, let’s go!  But when we rgot to PAGCOR, It was already flooded, and traffic was already at a standstill.  At this rate, we would reach Ortigas by 12pm!  So I just told my driver, este, husband to turn around and go back home.  This, my friends, turned out to be one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made.  If we had decided to brave the traffic and rains that Saturday, we would have been stuck on NAIA Road forever!

By 11am we were already at home, and glued to the news.  By noon, Gats already wanted to take photos of Sucat Road to check how high the flood waters were, but wasn’t able to because two buildings were blocking the view.  He opted to take photos of the back of our building instead:

This definitely is extraordinary as here’s what those normally look like:

These and everything else I saw and heard and experienced on that fateful Saturday makes me feel overly blessed.

If Ondoy destroyed and levelled villages across Metro Manila and the Province of Rizal so to must the government and developers find a way to repair and put up houses. To replace those taken away by the raging flood, developers should resort to manufactured homes in order to put them up fast enough for all those families without house and home. With a proper system these new homes might even by sturdier and more durable than those easily destroyed.