ACTOR Jericho Rosales and his wife Kim Jones went out of their way to try to help residents inside their village who were trapped inside their homes as typhoon Ulysses battered Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon.
Using their surfboards, Rosales said he and Jones decided to give a hand to the rescuers when they saw the flood situation early this morning.
“This morning paglabas namin, baha na. Usually kapag baha dito kasi, ganyan talaga. Laging ganyan ang problema. Sometimes walang boats or flotation devices so naglabas kami ni Kim ng surfboard,” he said.
“Okay naman [‘yung mga napuntahan namin sa bahay], safe naman sila, thank God. May mga iba lang na hindi na mapuntahan nung rescue teams kasi malakas na ‘yung agos and wala pang boats,” he added.
An avid surfer since 1999, Rosales did the same thing when tropical storm “Ondoy” hit the country and also affected his subdivision in 2009.
When asked how he would compare today’s situation to when “Ondoy” hit, Rosales said: “Wala akong data or facts pero in a sense na hindi natin nalaman na tataas ng ganito [ang baha], mas malala ito para sa akin.”
“Kasi parang paggising ng mga tao, napuyat sila kagabi, paggising nila ganyan na. Maraming taong hindi nakaalis. Based on nangyari na before tapos caught by surprise na naman tayo na ganito, I think in that sense medyo mas malala ito,” he explained.
Amid what’s happening, Rosales said it is still best to remain calm and just be better equipped for when something like this happens again in the future.
“Stay calm and siguro it’s too late now to complain or anything so mas maganda, kung tayo mismo in the future we can prepare. It’s always preparation para sa akin. Preparation ng mga nasa bahay and ng mga rescuers. Of course, support the rescuers. I hope they get enough funds for rescue. We get better warnings sana for the people para hindi na mangyari,” he said.(ABS-CBN)
