Achoo!

Netnet Camomot

THERE’S this saying, about how the US sneezes and the rest of the world catches a cold. It could be China now, as in, China sneezes and the rest of the world catches a cold.

Here in Cagayan de Oro, the sky sneezes, and the city’s flood-prone areas catch its, ewww, mucus. It happened before, it happened last Tuesday night, and it can happen again.

I was in an office at Limketkai Mall on Tuesday afternoon when I heard some sound. It was only after someone said it’s raining that I realized, uh, that’s rain. And of course the next thought that came to mind was, Flood! With Sendong’s anniversary falling the following day, on Wednesday December 16, the higher the justification to panic.

The LKK Center is a flood-prone area. The moment raindrops fall on your head while you’re there, the next best thing to do is to transfer to higher ground, preferably not within that area.

Climate change and floods are now becoming the new normal and the Cagayanon has to learn to adjust. Once it rains, you leave the flood-prone area immediately or stay there until the water subsides to a level that your car can safely navigate through without stalling. And don’t ever pass by the area’s underpass! Water will always find a way to lower ground or to an exit, whichever comes first, as if afraid of also getting trapped in one place, and an underpass or underground tunnel is the worst place to be when the sky is not only sneezing but also coughing, complete with thunder and lightning. Catch basin, anyone?

Like what happened on Tuesday night. While trying to dodge the thunder, lightning, and overflowing manholes, we opted to go to the taxi waiting area instead of crossing the street to reach my friend’s car which was parked at the back of Pizza Republic. Good thing one cabbie was choosing passengers by then and after about three groups of potential passengers who were begging him to bring them to anywhere but there, it was now my turn to beg. I mentioned my destination, and he simply nodded. Uh, you mean I’m the lucky one? Haha.

But the water level was rising and cars were barely moving. And the cab driver decided to go through Pinikitan. I have no idea if Pinikitan is flood-prone. Is it? I ended up advising him where to go, and that’s through Florentino Street, out to Osmena, then Agudo, Captain Vicente Roa, Luna, Capistrano, then Ysalina Bridge. Better drive through streets familiar to me than a maze I’m not familiar with on a dark rainy night complete with thunder and lightning.

Along the way, we were listening to the radio and learned about a family sending SOS to save them from the underpass at LKK. Their car stalled and the water level had already reached its windows.

When I reached home, the househelp had shut my room’s windows, thanks much to this thing called common sense. Of course the bukid wasn’t spared from the rain, thunder and lightning, and the room had to be safe from the storm.

Government people need to solve the flood problem otherwise this is going to be a recurring obstacle course each time it’s raining cows and carabaos. SM is now building a bigger mall near the LKK Center. Try to imagine sailing through flooded streets once that mall is open. Scary, eh?

I was praying the whole time from LKK Center up to the house on Tuesday night. That may make me look like I pray only when I need a miracle, but I do pray. Hehe.

Better that than prey. It’s a difference of one letter but it’s a big one.

For now, though, the Cagayanon has to consider that LKK Mall is the biggest homegrown mall in CDO, and when we have to deal with its executives and employees, at least we are assured that they don’t have to go through the eye-of-a-needle aka the corporate main office’s bigwigs in Manila. Unlike this particular mall’s cinema which is a part of a nationwide conglomerate and whose excuse for their lack of care for CDO clients is their Manila office’s mandate.

That’s one new word I learned recently: mandate. Mandate daw from Manila. Mandate, mandate, mandate. So, I told them, Well, unsaon ta man that even my friend, whom I love to call as the central bank of CDO because she truly is, won’t even be considered as a major business owner if compared to this nationwide mall’s owners who have multi-billion investments not only in the Philippines but most probably all over the world especially in, hmmm, Spain?

For now, though, we’re moving forward and gathering good vibes for a good cause, and we have to continue working together with that cinema since we’re there till the project is over.

But still, lesson learned: Be warned that once the cinema’s Manila main office sneezes, the CDO branch catches pneumonia.