LAST SATURDAY, I experienced what must have been the craziest day of my life.

Maximum Groovity, an annual inter-school dance competition at Ateneo de Manila, had finally come. I spent two months preparing for our piece, so naturally, I was looking forward to this day.

Our team was to meet in school for lunch and go to the competition together. The winds were getting stronger. I could see only white fog and the raging winds outside my window.

I went on Skype to talk to my family back in Cebu. I showed them how strong the rain was getting through my webcam and told them how frightened it made me.

After a few minutes, Lita came into my room and asked if we should turn off the circuit breaker. The rain was starting to flood over it.

I went downstairs to take a look. I was shocked to see Morrie, the family driver, waist-deep in water, trying to push the gate open.

The water kept rising. In about 10 minutes, the water crept into the house and rose from ankle level to hip level. I panicked. I called my dad and he told me to salvage whatever I could. I tried to carry two refrigerators up the stairs with a sprained foot. Talk about adrenaline!

Lita was helping us rush the things up the stairs when she suddenly let out a yelp. A floating glass shard cut her toe. I had to rush her up to my room and remedy her wound with large amounts of Teramycin and Band-aid.

I told her to stay upstairs and rest while we finished carrying up everything we could, but she was so ashamed to be sitting helplessly in my chair that she instead paced around frantically, which led to a lot of blood on the floor of my room.

She kept saying, ?Mor! Akong butang!? (Mor, my things!). Lita wanted to save her ATM because she thought that losing it meant losing all her money.

Morrie and I saved what we could: my late grandmother?s photo albums, our old karaoke machine and my mom?s favorite vase, but the water wouldn?t let up, and we just could not keep swimming any more.

Both cars in the garage were completely submerged underwater, and the gate of the house showed only about six inches of its head. All the furniture was floating to the ceiling, and if I went down the stairs, I?d be a goner.

We waited for four hours before the water slowly subsided back to knee level. It might not seem too long, but the wait was excruciating. I didn?t even realize that I hadn?t eaten anything since the night before. I prayed the rosary and the entire prayer book hoping for the rain to stop.

Thankfully the water is gone now.

I?m very lucky. Yes, the long awaited competition didn?t take place; yes, most of my house is destroyed; and yes, both cars are most probably junked.

But my little tale cannot compare to those who completely lost everything they?ve worked so hard for. Thousands of families are now homeless, hundreds of people are missing, and up until three days after the tragedy, some people were still on their rooftops, waiting to be rescued.

Let us continue coming together. Let us help out one another. If the world doesn?t care, we have to at least be here for each other.