CARWASH manager Jericho Taberna certainly didn’t wish to gloat at the misery spawned by Taal volcano’s sudden tantrums on Sunday afternoon. But he was certainly pleased at the unintended boost it gave their business.
For the 40-year-old R&R Carwash manager, business was so brisk – the cash box nearly doubled — starting late Sunday till Monday, with most of their customers the victims of the ashfall that blanketed places as far as Metro Manila and southern and central Luzon.
Taberna had just come from Bulacan on Sunday morning, and he recalled seeing a clear sky. But when he arrived on the afternoon of January 12 at their garage in Makati, he noticed that most of the cars, both sedans and SUVs, brought to them for carwash were covered with ash. Most came from the south of Manila.
“ . . . Nagtaka nga ako dahil from 6 pm to 10 pm, doble ang mga sasakyan [I was surprised because from 6pm to 10pm, the number of customers’ cars had doubled] .”
On a normal day, they can accommodate six cars at one time inside their garage. One car has a 40-minute clean-up time, including the vacuum process and tire-black.
“So many people were waiting to be served, we couldn’t accommodate everyone. We closed shop at 10 pm and we opened up 7 this morning, but it was still like that – many people were waiting.”
Their eight carwash boys worked double-time to clean up the ashfall- covered vehicles of regular and walk-in customers.
R&R charged P150 for sedans and P250 for an SUV, on a normal carwash fare, but the ashfall required much more effort and cleaning materials. “The ash was so thick, and it stuck to the cars, especially inside the cars. You’ll run out of soap and water for cleaning, so I had to double the charge. And our carwash boys got exhausted,” he explained.
Customers didn’t mind waiting for their cars.
Black, then darker
It was black and then it became darker. 5cms of ash covered everything.
Joseph is one of seven Koreans studying Shimon Ullman Science in Silang, Cavite.
He saw the eruption with his own eyes. It was between 2 and 3 pm when he saw the ash and rocks falling with mild rain. “It was nothing serious,” he thought at first. But when the volcano erupted past 3 pm, spewing more volcanic ash and dust, he realized how serious it is. “It covered the whole area of Silang, first it was black because of dust, ashfall, and more rain. [There were] rock flies. Then it became darker and darker. I saw the road covered with 5cms or two inches of ash. The roof, the trees, the grounds, everything.”
He recalled he still saw the sunset, albeit just a sliver of it, and during the evening, there was more ashfall.
He and his companions thought it was best for them to immediately evacuate from Silang and head for Makati.
“We were seven people riding in one car, it took about three hours from Silang to Makati. It was late at night, no traffic but (you can see the ash) even after Silang, in Dasmarinas, it was a very wide area, dust, and ash. It looked like fog, of course, it was scary. We immediately evacuated because we didn’t know when it will erupt,” Joseph added.
BM saw them in one of the big carwash shops along Dela Rosa Street in Makati City
Smells like sulfur. Zero visibility.
The Frenchman Olivier and his Filipino wife Jillian live in Iruhin West near Picnic Grove, Tagaytay City. On Sunday afternoon, they saw the phreatic eruption of Taal Volcano from their bedroom. They thought it was a hailstorm but after they saw rocks and sand and ashfall from their window between 3 and 4 pm, they immediately packed their luggage and with their cat fled to Manila.
Olivier recounted their experience. He said he didn’t “understand immediately what was happening. When I saw big rocks fall in front of me, I knew we have some problems.” They then started to to pack everything, luggage, we decided to go Manila. With dust and ash covering the windshield, they barely saw the road. Now when we were inside the car, it’s difficult to drive. There is no time to be scared, you have to do something, you have to be in action, think, take your car and move fast. And after, when we are on top of the volcano, then we have come to our senses of what was happening.”
His wife Jillian said she initially thought it was a hailstorm. “We were in the bedroom ad felt dest and ash in the air. Then we saw smoke. I went outside to check because the air started to reek of sulfur. She started getting dizzy so she prayed and they decided to evacuate. “We got our car. Traffic was terrible and it was zero visibility; of course, I was scared.”
She said that there is a lot of movement, they can feel the anxieties, the panic, but everyone tries to be calm while prepping for their own evacuation. “na fefeeel, mo, pero syempre nakakatatakot, dahan dahan naman yun mga sasakyan, nasa kotse na kami, nakinig kami nang balita alert number #3 na , nang dumating kami dito sa BGC mga 8 pm, sabi ng Tita ko, alert number #4 na daw.”
BM saw them queueing up their car full of ashfall next to a roadside carwash next to BGC along Kalayaan Avenue in Makati City. ‘Hindi naman traumatic, pero hindi pa rin relax.” Continued Jillian.