Yuppie Reports: Typhoon Ondoy, aka Ketsana

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.

Water. Lots of it.

In hindsight, there were almost no reports of Ondoy packing that much water. My friend Marlet told me that CNN’s forecast said as much, but sadly, it went largely unnoticed. (Sometimes, I find it funny that some people think that Pacquiao’s dog makes for more interesting news. This is one of those times.)

Ondoy dumped around 455 millimeters of rain. Compare that to 250 millimeters of rain from Katrina, which brought New Orleans similar nightmarish flooding.

Now, I grew up in a relatively low area. Obando, Bulacan, being in a low area is bad enough, add the fact that it is also directly affected by the dam system and you’ve got a town IN water during rainy season. (Actually, there are places where the water refuses to leave, making it almost funny when you see it for the first time. It looks like a school was built on – no, IN a river.) Growing up, I knew that when the grown ups say, “Nagpakawala ng dam” (the process of letting excess water loose to avoid dam failure), it means that we were going to have to stay on the second floor and all the stuff downstairs will have to be carried up, or hoisted up on slabs of adobe. Ironically, I also chose not one, but two schools that are somewhat notoriously underwater: University of Santo Tomas (Manila) and Fatima (Valenzuela City).

As the above paragraph indicates, I am not usually fazed by flood water. The only things I worry about was my white skirt and my shoes, and getting marooned somewhere. Also, I had to remember to wash my feet afterward so as not to get Leptospirosis. Honestly, I didn’t think Ondoy was going to be that bad, until I saw videos, pictures and news reports attesting to the contrary. Places that don’t usually get flooded were underwater.

The non-stop rain got around 80% of Metro Manila flooded. Marikina was hardest hit, together with Cainta, Rizal.

Wonder Wall

I wonder if the trees cut down (around Metro Manila) by the MMDA and Bayani Fernando are now laughing at us from wherever trees go when they die. If anybody deserves some Schadenfreude from all of this, it’s the trees. Also, I wonder if any illegal loggers were bludgeoned to death by their own conscience, if they had any to begin with.

I, like many tax payers, wonder where the 2009 emergency budget went. My blood pressure rose when I found out that it went to pay for the steaks. Our dear president seem to have thought “Emergency Budget” translated to “Emergency SPENDING Money on Foreign Trips.” In addition to that, I wonder how some politicians are going to use this catastrophe to their advantage. People are likely to remember this until elections come next year.

I wonder why SM Maul of Asia didn’t let their employees stay over for the night. The said employees were forced to fend for themselves. Considering everybody else was stuck transportation-less (and everybody who had transportation were forced to walk… er, wade since the flooding turned most of the Metro’s streets into parking lots), I wonder how the SM management expected their employees to get home. Did they perhaps think their employees can apparate? Or fly?

On the (demented) lighter side, I wonder if car insurance companies are howling in agony right now. Cars have turned into submarines. As I told Mabie, “This is why it is always smarter to buy a car that floats.”

No, I’m not wondering how this could have happened. It doesn’t take a genius to know that this will likely happen again. As near apocalyptic deluges come, Noah certainly had better weather warning (read: God) and Da Yu had better flood control (not to mention better civil service).

There are a million other things I want to gripe about, but seeing as Google is flooded with tweets, Facebook links, and everything else, I can’t verify some of the stuff I’m wondering about. If you’d like to wonder some more, here’s something for you: Naranasan mo na bang… and Ondoy, you fucking asshole.

Aftermath

I’m not so sure about the numbers, but reports indicate at least 86 people died. Twenty seven provinces are under state of calamity, and people badly affected by the storm is in the thousands. Not so sure about total damage, but I expect it to be several million pesos.

Wall of Shame

According to some reports (via Facebook, hence the lack of links), Angel Locsin donated 500,000 pesos for Ondoy victims. Chavit Singson donated 250,000 pesos. Mikey Arroyo, even after committing media suicide, decided to commit another blunder. He apparently donated 10,000 pesos. Let’s put that into perspective: 10,000 pesos is 200 dollars. About the same price as say, a cellphone. Or an expensive bottle of liquor. (Okay, let’s give Mikey Arroyo a break, maybe he didn’t know about the devastation Ondoy wreaked on the country and the people who voted him as he was squatting on the liquor store floor. Apparently, there’s a lot of things he doesn’t know about.) Another thing worthy of note: the pictures posted of the esteemed congressman and First Son are starting to mysteriously disappear. Shall we blame the gremlins?

Another person shared the limelight as Mikey Arroyo, one Jacque Bermejo. After posting a somewhat insensitive (I’m being kind) comment on Facebook, she has since been barraged with internet hate. In the age of the Web, it’s pretty hard to escape such an epic misstep, especially when you try googling your name and the hits include a couple of dozen hate blogs, a thousand Facebook reposts, and several thousand retweets. I hope that if she tries to find a job somewhere, her prospective employers don’t think of googling her. (At this point, her Multiply account’s guestbook has nearly 15,000 flames.)

So there. Honestly, I started writing this last night, when all the information and images were still fresh, but I ended up erasing that post and started over. Feelings of helplessness are overpowering, especially when you can’t contact your loved ones and when you realize you can’t possibly check if everybody you care about is okay. The recurring thought is:

Walang pinipili ang baha.

Ondoy will surely join my list of the worst storms ever.

P.S. You can help. Relief goods are being accepted in almost everywhere. Lend a hand.