Well, the storms using male names are.
When I was in elementary and high school (yeah, so that was almost 10-15 years ago), Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or widely-known as PAGASA use female names for storms entering the Philippine Area of Responsibility. When I asked adults why they do that, they said that females are fickle-minded just like the weather. Or somewhere along that line.
But by the time I was in college, if I'm not mistaken, they started using several names for it, not even names of people are included. Case in point is Bagyong Milenyo.
This year, or just recently, Ondoy ravaged us like it's the end of the world. Like it's his last chance to bring on all his wrath to the world. Unfortunately (or fortunately, wherever you may be geographically located), he chose not the whole world but certain places in Luzon, most especially Marikina, Rizal, Quezon City, Pasig, Taguig, Laguna and Bulacan. I know the list goes on but the bottomline is, it chose the Philippines.
It was my first time to worry so bad because of a natural calamity. I have experienced earthquakes, even some storms here in Manila and back in Marinduque. But I have stayed calm and remained hopeful.
But Ondoy gave me a different feeling. Days of waiting for my affected friends to text me that they're okay left me agitated. I felt so hopeless and helpless that I can't even rush over to their places to help them out. Being part of the workforce left me feeling that I'm not even worth to be called an Iska or even a Filipino because I can't spend too much time volunteering to help out those affected.
And the Saturday I am waiting for so I could help out is now a day everyone fears about. Because of Pepeng. Even people wanting to help are left immobile because news says that we must stay at home or on 'safe' places such as evacuation centers. If only we can really text "Pepeng (space) OFF" and send to any hotline for it not to pass here, I bet we will spend millions. And as of the moment, everyone is fervently praying that God will spare us from this storm.
Ondoy has left us paranoid. And panicky. We might even be scared of few raindrops that we will experience soon. But I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, as cliche at it may sound.
I just hope that really, Ondoy was too much for us to bear. God spare us from the wrath of Pepeng.