The Dupax Flood of 2011

For a town that rarely experiences floods, this second big one in recent memory is again a big hit, not because of casualties but because this time it generated interest among Dupax natives living or working overseas and making use of Facebook. 

Got a number of texted accounts of the flood triggered by Typhoon Pedring the past few days. In my comfortable house in Baguio, I should not give a damn. But since the contents of the messages fortuitously have something to do with me or with people I care about, as I shall later tell, I had to pay attention.

Fortunately, too, somebody with a camera happened to record some memorable scenes of the flood, all the more lending weight to its significance in the history of Dupax. I have included my selection of such photos along with an elaboration why I chose them for this post, mainly because they might as well the same shots I would have taken had I been there.

The texted messages started quite simply with me asking my correspondent, as it were, how Typhoon Pedring was going. Excerpts:

Me:
Boni:
Me:
Boni:

Almost immdiately, I relayed the sad news to Judith and to Opring this way:

The lights in Baguio went out or rather were turned off by falling bamboo poles or pine branches. Thus, I had no way to verify on TV what was happening in Nueva Vizcaya.

Then I got this message, again through texting, from my sister Judith:

Judith:
Me:

Then my daughter mentioned something about my sister Nenette telling about photos of the flood in Dupax posted on Facebook. And almost immediately when the electricity came back, I turned on my laptop and logged on to my Facebook account.

None of the said flood photos appeared in my inbox. Instead, there was a color photo of the Dupax Catholic Church in its resplendent beauty, under which was a prayer by the Facebook account owner Fr. Romulo Felix that went this way:

I could not resist dipping my finger into the Dupax flood pie, as it were. And so I also sent in this comment:

Then a little later, I opted to open my own Facebook account. And lo and behold, the candid photos of the flood.

A big event. (Photo by Hazel Basconcillo Arreo)

The Church tower in the background. (Photo by Hazel Basconcillo Arreo)