My wife Cristina was stuck for 14 hours on the streets between Manila and Makati during Ondoy. Her stories of what she saw, and some graphic scenes on TV, gave me some insights into the realities of disaster relief.

At first it looked like ‘every man for himself’ but soon help was at hand. Not from the police, the army or the local government. No, no sign of them at all. The help came from the poor, guys like the ones who on dry days would be trying to park your car. Yes maybe they were hoping to make a few pesos, but that doesn’t take away from their bravery and the service that they did.

They directed traffic to unclog junctions and to allow emergency U-turns. They passed on reports from further down the road. They pointed the way to the nearest gas station. They pushed stalled cars to dry ground. They brought food and water to the windows of trapped cars. Actually a friend of mine who was trapped in a queue called a takeaway pizza place and the young delivery guy walked through the water to deliver it to the car – I hope he got good tip.

There were no rescue boats – the first day of the storm at least. But where the water was above chest height there were guys standing by with inflated truck tires to tow children and old people across. One man had made a small raft of big mineral water bottles, full of air and tied together. I even saw three men struggling through the water carrying an old woman at head height – thankfully they were sure footed enough to reach the shallow water.

The most touching sight was a tricycle, with three kids clinging to the flimsy roof, pedalling determinedly through chest high water.

A few minutes later the driver pedalled back to pick up more kids. I am sure that it wasn’t a few pesos that drove his tired legs, but concern for the kids.

These were modern St. Christophers indeed – I am sure many lives were saved by silent heroes like these.

Where were the authorities?

Hard to tell. Did you know that everyone in the world uses one name for a storm, but the Filipino authorities insist on wasting time on a complicated system to give storms a local name. Maybe the energy spent on naming the storms exhausts them?