SEPTEMBER has been a tough month for Gang Badoy.

Gang?s friend and film critic Alexis Tioseco was killed in his home with his girlfriend, Nika Bohinc. Then, the Eguids, the family that runs Breadbox, which Gang calls her ?respite along Guijo St.,? were also murdered in their home.

?This month has required so much grief from me,? she said.

But the night ?Ondoy? struck, the Rock Ed founder set aside her grief and did what she does best ? try to make a difference.

?I tried driving out to Eastwood to pick up the core group of Rock Ed volunteers who were there early for our Girl Code event. We drove around for over two hours trying to get to Eastwood from Ortigas Center. We never got to them. Finally, at around 3:30 p.m., I decided to go back home and go online.?

Gang soon realized that so many Twitter and Facebook users were posting useful information about the typhoon. But she knew a lot of people had already lost electric power and most likely no longer had access to the Internet. They had only their mobile phones which gave them access only to FM stations and not AM radio.

On air

Gang felt she had to do something. ?I said, I?ll go on air!?

But Gang isn?t a DJ on Jam 88.3. She hosts Rock Ed Radio, a two-hour talk show Wednesday nights.

She walked to the studio in Ortigas Center to get hold of the station manager. ?But he lived in an affected area and was managing things at home. So I just barged into the dark empty studio.?

She told the guard, the only one around, ?You must help me stop the auto-broadcast and I need to go on air. He was very hesitant because he didn?t know me and wasn?t sure if I knew how to operate the board. He was right, I didn?t. But I insisted and said, ?Malaking tulong ang may radyo na nagbobroadcast ng info, bumabaha na sa labas, parang malaki ?to, sir.? We stared at each other for a time, with me determined to go on air even if I had to force my way through the board buttons.?

Help came ? DJ Lambert Cruz was also in the studio. ?He was so cool about it and said he had the same idea but didn?t know how to go about it. We only met that night but now I feel like Lambert is my best friend.?

Soon, Gang was on air, getting reports from people on where they were and how badly affected their area was, who needed help, which roads were passable and which weren?t. People kept texting and Tweeting, and Gang read the info on air.

?At the height of the storm Saturday night, I was taking calls from people who were still inside their homes, trapped by the flood. I?d talk to them. All they wanted were answers to anything they?d ask. If I didn?t know the answer, people listening to me would Tweet the question until we found an answer. Or people would call in an answer. We were a nation of citizen journalists that night and I was merely the conduit.?

The first night, she and Lambert stayed on air until 6 a.m. ?He was ably managing the tech part of the studio and he was Googling, looking for answers while I took the calls and read out the messages.?

Medical emergencies

Gang stayed on air for 16 hours. She did the same thing the next days ? she spent 13 to 16 hours on air every day until 6 a.m. She has barely slept these past days but she isn?t complaining.

She also got calls and messages from people with medical emergencies. She and her listeners found doctors who gave information on a wide range of concerns, from treating dog bites to asthma attacks if you are trapped on the second floor of your house.

One night, Gang got a call from a man who was helping his wife give birth. ?I had to ask him, ?May tuyong kwarto ba dyan? Punta ka doon, kuha ka ng mga bedsheet, unan, lahat ng pwedeng malambot. Nakahiga na ba misis mo? Handa kang saluhin yung baby, sabihan mo lang siya umiri..? While talking, I was Googling ?how to give birth at home? websites. It was an awesome feeling when I heard the baby cry above the mother?s screaming. Then the man asked me my name, I said I was Gang, then he said ?Anne, salamat.? Then the line got cut.?

Some messages were more somber. ?We got messages on the Fernando family whose father, Dave, died because a wall in their residence fell on him. My friends messaged me that they needed funeral home services to bring his remains to a proper funeral home. I actually found the funeral home?s number on my recently dialed numbers list because of Alexis. I got hold of a guy named Jury who worked for St. Peter?s. He agreed to drive out despite the rising waters in Katipunan.?

Gang says the phone call she wouldn?t forget is a simpler one. ?A man named Dofel called me from his workplace. He said he was worried about his wife and two kids living in Tatalon because he saw on TV that his street was flooded already. He was in tears. I told him I rarely prayed but I will pray for him. From bawling and sobbing, at the end of our phone call he was almost chuckling and said, ?Ni minsan sa buhay ko di pa ako natawag sa stasyon ng radyo, salamat ha.?

?That mood change was the most intense for me. It was so real. That?s when it hit me, that my taking in calls help and that if I could ease someone?s anxiety by making him feel someone was on the other end of the line, I was willing to sit there forever and do it until no one needs to call anymore. I think that?s the only time I felt like crying.

How strange that it wasn?t the extreme experience of a literal life ? or childbirth ? and death before me that made me cry. It was the in-between, where all he had was, ?Is my family okay?? and all I had was, ?What?s your name?? and ?My name is Gang and I will pray for you.? I guess that was the first time I said those words and they actually meant something to someone. I really think the start and end of life isn?t where life lies. It?s really in the in-between.?

Relief

Even when the flood started to subside, Gang stayed on air, giving information on relief services, where to go if people wanted to help, what to bring, what to do.

The whole time she was on air, many thoughts ran in Gang?s head. ?I would ping pong from hating the government for not being prepared, to hating them more because they should have just said, ?We?re sorry we weren?t prepared for this, these are our only resources, so please even if you?re anti-administration can we help each other out first??

?I mean, if I were President ? I?d say that first. ?Sorry this was bigger than us and our resources, but we will grit our teeth and give everything to survive this.? I mean, instead of swaggering in the same bida manner... This storm is bigger than our political biases, therefore I had to struggle to go beyond that.

?...I kept thinking of all the tarps of these politicians? mugs and computed how many towels, blankets, milk and food that tarpaulin budget could have covered. But I had to take my mind off that because I had a task at hand. And my task was to take calls and messages.?

Asked why she did it, she said, ?I wish I had a more profound answer other than the resource was within my reach and I knew I could do it. ..During a crisis, the most comfort you can give a person is when he or she asks a question, someone listens and tries to answer it. Maski walang definite answer. .. It?s a relief that someone?s on the other end of the line. I think that?s what we offered.?

Connect to Gang or Rock Ed Radio on Twitter: @gangbadoy or @rockedradio