Sendong: A name to remember, an experience to bring forever.

- I was so excited to see my friend Judely, from Butuan City. EJ and I was at Gardenia located at Tambo-Biasong, Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro City to have some copy of the notes from Bxu Peakers that we need to read for the NLE on December 18, 2011 and waited for Judely to arrive. The rain is so heavy and wind is whirling all around. When my Friend came together with Maam Tricia, we hugged each other and started to chit-chat. The current has been interrupted several times but then we still continue to have fun because she'll be leaving for Manila the next day. By 10 PM she and Maam Trish left already because she still needs to prepare for her flight. We then went to Room 129 together with our fellow peakers and decided to spend the night there because the rain is so heavy and so that we could spend more time with our fellow Peakers. At that night I could hardly sleep because of my cough.

December 17,2011 (Around 12 am)

- The busy people woke me up. I saw my roommates struggling to lift their baggage and transfer it on the bed. When I looked at the floor I was wondering why did the floor turned brown? Where does this muddy water came from? Later I realized that the water is rising very fast! We then decided to go on the 2nd deck of the bed. Three of our roommates rushed to the door to open it when we heard the people outside screaming."Bai panggawas na mo kay taas na kaayo ang tubig!"


I was so shocked when our roommates shouted ," Halaka! Dili ma abre ang pultahan! " (the door won't open). It feels like we are gonna die that time. I was starting to do bargaining to God. A few moments later the door cracked and the water rushed inside, adding more water inside, adding up our anxiety. We were so hopeless at that time, telling ourselves that this might be the end. We could only hear the rush of water that's getting inside our room, a muddy water that could and might leave us lifeless if we could not get out from the room and the shout and scream of the people outside.We were trapped for some time and thanks to God our door opened but it swept away 3 of our roommates inside the room. Luckily, they managed to get out from the muddy water. We then went out the room while our minds were fastly processing the ways to escape through this once we are out from the room. I was at EJ's back while he was the one who swam through the muddy water because I don't know how to swim. We saw the wall just beside our room and we climbed to it and went to the 2nd floor. It was a blessing to us that the 2nd floor was not yet finished. People were looking for their roommates "Asa silang Suyene?" - "Asa silang Mark?" - "Ang uban girls aha man?" Suddenly, the so called Jet Li feel throught ceiling down to the room on the 1st floor " Bai tabangi sa mi naay nabulasot!"We were so disturbed of what we saw. Heads and hands from the hole went out trying to escape from the water which reached through the ceiling. They were the 17 girls who were left trapped in their room. Some already drunk the muddy water and some were already weak. Thanks to God that we were able to rescue all of them from the room filled with chocolate-colored muddy water. The others pulled out some kind of metal frames to utilize it and use it as our bridge to transfer to the other building. The others were already in panic because the water is fastly rising in just a matter of few minutes. It was very hard to all of us because we could hardly see our way. When we reached the other building, someone told us. "Didto mo sa likod ang uban para mabahin. Naay agiaan dadto." Others were struggling to reach the roof and we headed to the backdoor to transfer to the rooftop of another building. I said to myself, "Lord paundanga lang ang ulan Lord ug patabuka lang mi dadto padulong sa rooftop para ma kampante mi gamay" .

We then felt the extreme thirst, hunger and coldness when we reached the rooftop. We left behind all our things including our gadgets.We reached the rooftop around 1 AM. We saved our lives and left with nothing. We were waiting for some rescue at that time but no one came. It was so disturbing to hear the screams of the people asking for help and rooftops that wrecked down with the people screaming then ended with a moment of silence. Children screaming " MAMA! TABANG!" but then you can do nothing stare at the dark surrounding. We waited for the water to subside. We get the courage to go down at 7 AM. Then Maam Marivic and the rest of the staff came to lead us the way out. We walked frem Gardenia to Oro Christian, about 700 meters, seeing the devasted Barangay Macasanding. The water was estimated to have a height of 20 feet seeing the dead animals and other things up on the branches of the trees. The mud was all over. It was painful to walk trhough the mud with little stone and pebbles with your bare feet. We were brought to the PEAK office and waited for some announcements. The Butuan PEAKERs were transfered to Budgetel in front of Capitol University. I went home with my things full of mud because some of our things were retrieved from the wrecked place. My mom rushed to the gate and I entered while crying and telling them what happened to us. She said " Ok ra na imohang mga gamit, pasagdi na na ang importante buhi ka. Nabalaka jud baya ko nimo kay pagtext nimo adto naa na mi Bukid". I was not able to communicate well with my mom because I left my phone inside Room 129. I was able to send her a message at the roof top around 2 AM because I asked favor to those who were able to save their phone to send my mom a message. Sendong was an eye opener to me for many things.

The day after, December 18, 2011, We took the Nursing Licensure Examination. The PRC did not consider moving the day of the examination despite of the state of calamity. It was difficult but we have no choice but to take all of these as an obstacle and challenge through what we aimed for.

I would like to give thanks to Maam Marivic Yamit Tabasan for the unending support to all of us. To all the PEAKERs from CdeO and Butuan, thank you for the support and friendship that we've shared for months of review. Indeed it was an unforgetable experience to be with you. Kuya Kim and Kuya Ariston, our saviour, our disaster management leader. And most of all to our God almighty for saving all of us.


I am Net2x, a future nurse, a Sendong survivor, and this is my story.


(Sorry for the wrong grammar. I am not a writer nor an expert of the english language)


Sendong aftermath photos at Gardenia