During the height of typhoon Ketsana and the massive flooding it brought to Metro Manila, the internet and TV stations were flooded! with picture and videos of the disaster. Among them was this video of a group of people clinging onto debris while being swept away by the strong current of a river and going under a bridge:
…Romeo's entire family was standing on a rooftop with no escape route when the swollen river plowed through the rows of houses at around 8 a.m. Rather than being swept away, they jumped on a floating, entangled mass of garbage, tree trunks, galvanized iron roofing, and plywood that had clumped together. Some of the other people on the accidental raft were strangers whom Romeo says might have been carried by the current from upstream.
As they neared the San Mateo bridge, Romeo looked at his wife Mary Jane and their two children – Marjorie, 13, and Mark, 10 – and wondered if they would make it past the concrete span. The water had risen to the same level as the bridge, and their flimsy raft would certainly smash into its massive concrete supports.
“Kami ng asawa ko magaling lumangoy kasi lumaki kami sa tabi ng dagat, pero yung mga anak ko hindi (My wife and I are good swimmers because we grew up near the sea, but my children aren’t)," he said… [GMA News]
Their raft of sorts broke in to several pieces and they were all thrown into the water. Despite being separated from each other, each member of the family miraculously survived.
