The McVie Show Season 4

Thursday, Sept. 28

The night before there were warnings already—Typhoon Milenyo would hit Metro Manila directly at around noon the next day. But we had a pre-production meeting at 9am Thursday for a shoot on Saturday. So storm or no storm the meeting pushed through. In the middle of the pre-prod the typhoon knocked the Luzon power grid down, plunging Metro Manila into darkness.

After the meeting we moved to Rockwell Mall for lunch. But we still had to go back to the office. Waiting for our service we watched nonchalantly as Milenyo battered the Nestle building. When we were pulling out of Rockwell the tent flew and crashed right in front of us. Had we been a few seconds earlier the tent would have smashed on our side.

We got to the office at the height of the storm. I was at the corridor when I heard the walls creaking. It was the building swaying in the wind. It was sooo cool. Instead of freaking me out I was actually assured because now I know we’d survive a strong quake.

By 3pm things had already quieted down.

When we stepped out of the office at around 7:30pm to look for dinner only the restaurants on People’s Support were fully lit, drawing people in droves. Walking around the block, we saw the streets littered with leaves and branches and guard posts thrown around. The whole thing felt apocalyptic, like I was expecting zombies to start appearing from the darkness. After dinner I called home. My brother said the power came back on at around 8:30pm.

We left the office at around 10:30pm. Along EDSA north-bound a huge billboard had fallen towards the street. On my way home I saw so many fallen trees; some I never realized were there because I took them for granted.

When I reached our village, the whole place was dark. There were no trees on the streets but the power was off. When I got to our street, lo and behold—the streetlights were blazing. Lucky us our street is connected to a grid that was not down.

While our street looked so normal, the rest of the metro looked broken and bowed.

Friday, Sept. 29

Seen in the light of day, our street wasn’t spared of Milenyo’s fury; it’s just that the darkness helped hide the damage. The trees were all bent and askew due to the strong winds.

Everyone in the office was complaining about how they had no water or electricity; word was that certain areas would be in that state for the next 5 days. Inside I was gloating: Go, Marikina, go! The city in the pink of health, says our mayor’s tagline.

My theory is that the valley helped blunt the typhoon’s full force. The Sierra Madres on one side and the city buildings on the other side blocked the winds. Whatever. We’re still standing.

The billboards though aren’t. A couple of really huge ones fell, causing massive traffic jams along EDSA. Thank god when we were traveling from Rockewll to the office no billboard fell on us. I could imagine the tabloid headline the next day: Advertising folks killed by advertising!

Saturday, Sept. 30

Slowly the metro is rebuilding itself. Most areas in the business district of Makati now have power back on; the traffic lights are working again. Fallen trees are being cut and cleared away. Life goes on.

I wonder if Bed is open tonight.