Locals Brave the Scorch Of El Nino in Their Own Community

Illustrative photo by the writer, Anna Liza VB, to depict the heat flare during El Nino.

With classes halted to give students a safe space and shaded away from El Nino weather, that is expected to reach 42 degrees to 46 degrees today, many locals dealt with the threat of heat in their own terms.

Some locals went out to buy commercial-grade ice tubes in 5 kilogram plastics, a staple sell in e-commerce these days where ice tubes or ice packs, have become a sought after commodity in times of summer.

Ice tubes in 3 to 5 kilograms can be bought and delivered door-to-door, and is priced at Php 30-50 over at a popular e-commerce.  These usually go out of stock as early as noon time, from local merchants using e-commerce.

The same ice packs that used to be a staple inventory of popular  convenience stores are hard to come by, and most often can now be bought online.

Meanwhile a truckload of empty  containers meant for storage of purified water have filled  a mini-truck to the brim, in Alabang Zapote road Laspinas city,  waiting to be filled in and delivered.

Some locals chose to spend their day chatting with neighbors under their ,"tolda" or make shift tents in the areas of Pulang Lupa. 

Most community stores are closed except for the retails chains and flea markets that carry basic necessities like vegetables, rice grains  and the usual grocery items preferred by the locals.

The advise on suspension of classes were passed on thru word-of-mouth, as it was only in other cities that had announced early the suspension of classes like Manila, which announced the class suspension a day before Wednesday.

Laspinas residents are mostly resilient to shows of weather disturbances and other disruptions as the city leans on a progressive lifestyle that is not easily bolted by natural disruptions; this is because it has reinvented itself as an autonomous, self-sustaining community with its burgeoning of small and niche businesses that defy corporate structures.

However, a weakness of the city is the lack of pliancy of its urban housing made available to the locals who are not prepared to face the brunt of El Nino in their simple housing that relies on cement structures to give wall against the scorching sun.

They are poised to live with the  challenges of the abnormal heat brought by El Nino without enough protection and proper roofing from the developers and local government.