No power, no drinking water, and little help

Raissa Robles is the South China Morning Post's long-time correspondent in the Philippines. Her family is just one of the thousands struggling to cope with the weekend's floods

As I write, my bedridden 85-year-old mother, my brother, his wife and their toddler son and newborn daughter remain trapped on the second floor of their home. They have no electricity and no drinking water.

I had once thought quaint the name of their gated community - Riverside Village, in Pasig City, Metro Manila. The implications of the name only became clear this weekend when the Pasig River swiftly and catastrophically burst its banks.

As of yesterday afternoon, the ground floor of their home was still flooded with two metres of murky, foul water. That is somewhat better than on Saturday, when the water level climbed halfway up their stairs. They had gathered blocks of styrofoam, should they need to make a desperate getaway.

On Saturday, when rain fell on Manila like a waterfall, I hit the phones for help on their behalf. But all lines to the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council were engaged.

Though I live 30 minutes' drive away, the community, like much of Manila, was reachable only by helicopter or boat. I could not even phone them because the only mobile phone they had working uses a rival network. I stayed in touch via a cousin who called another relative who used the same network.

But yesterday, the mobile phones went dead.