Ketsana, locally known as Typhoon Ondoy, was detected as early as last Wednesday, September 23. I don’t know meteorological jargon, but as far as I know, this one was supposed to be weak. In comparison to the two typhoons I remember, Milenyo (a Category 4 typhoon back in 2006, with lashing windspeeds of 215 kph, around 130 mph. For those of you who like twisted fun facts, this storm also hit the Philippines on the closing days of September and was the one that blew the roof clean off of our house.) and Rosing (a Category 5 that hit back in October 1995, it’s one of the strongest typhoons EVER. If you’re having a hard time visualizing it, jump into a wind tunnel, set the switch to 260 km/h – 160 mph – then stand there while you get pelted with debris.), Ondoy was only a relatively weak PAGASA Storm Signal 1 (30-60 kph). Little did we know though, that what Ondoy lacked in quality, it made up in quantity.

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