There is an ongoing road widening project in our street. It started last September. The project team started by clearing out the sides of the road to establish the road and riprap placement. Clearing out means some loosened soil as well when they had to remove the grasses and smaller trees.
And so when Typhoon Maring struck, 2 old trees whose roots were intertwined, collapsed and fell on the electric and internet wires. This caused 3 posts to bend and almost uprooted. Our electricity had to be cut off then. This happened on Tuesday night but we already didn’t have electricity since Monday. The good thing was, our Converge wire was not cut. Unfortunately, my cousin’s PLDT line was cut, so they had to wait for PLDT to fix theirs.
As temporary solution, the linemen cut off the electricity supply in our street so that the rest of our barangay will have electricity. Theirs was restored on a Thursday. We had to wait until Saturday for ours to be restored. Internet was also up when the electricity was back. That was a relief.
During the days without electricity, I asked the hubs to charge our gadgets and rechargeable flashlights in their office. And then when electricity was restored in some parts of our barangay, we went to my cousin’s house to charge.
Unfortunately, some frozen products were spoiled hay. Oh well. Lesson learned. Expect the worst and preserve thru other means like salting the meat.
I was not aware of the damage the typhoon caused as I had to reserve my phone battery for emergencies but when I was scrolling the news feeds a week later, I was shocked and saddened that there were landslides and floods still in some parts of the city. But it’s not surprising because while it was not raining the whole time, the wind was really strong.
And while the city is trying to fix the damages, Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) was taken over by someone who claims to be the new general manager. The group did the takeover at dawn of October 18 and this caused disruption in BENECO’s operation. I will not say much about this as I don’t know the facts. The only sad thing was that these people who wanted to take over BENECO did so in a manner that affected the city, moreso doing it right after the typhoon when electricity has not yet been restored in all areas. We were out of power again on Tuesday, October 19. I was worried that it won’t come back at night due to the ongoing unrest in BENECO. Good thing though that they restored it before 7PM. BENECO’s battle is not yet over. But I hope whether a new general manager will be installed or not, there will be no more drastic take overs.
Stay safe and keep going.
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