1921 Philippine Money (Family Collection) Rediscovered Because of the Floods.

Obverse:  5 Pesos circa 1921 (American regime) issued by the Philippine National Bank.

Reverse:  literally wiped-out.  In close up, some characters are still recognizable, though.

Is there anything good that came out of the recently atrocious event which can only be depicted by grotesque scenes of waist-deep floods brought about by the "enhanced" southwest monsoon that hit Metro Manila?  Could you think of one?  Was there any silver lining?  For me, there's one.  My mom "rediscovered" these really old Philippine paper bills from my grandfather's collection!  Yey!

Is it Time for a New Metro Manila?

View of the beautiful Metro Manila (Makati central business district).

"Evacuate all the people to a safe distance, then drop a radioactive-free warhead (no such thing?) to eradicate Metro Manila from the face of the Earth."   Sounds like a plot for a "pitu-pito" (i.e., a poor-quality movie that's rapidly made in 7 days which is quite popular in the Philippines in the 1990's).   How about opening all those surrounding dams and submerge the whole of Metro Manila in water?  There's another thought.  Cheaper and less scarier I might add. 

If there's New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, etc., why not a "New Metro Manila"?  (Darn!  "New Manila" is already taken.)   We shall move Metro Manila, the New Metro Manila, to higher grounds.  Hmmm, perhaps somewhere NORTH, in Bulacan, or down, way in the SOUTH in Mindanao.  We can study all of PAGASA's empirical data for the last 50 years and discover that land where no typhoon has ever crossed or where no flooding is recorded, ever.  Once found, with top-notch "urban planners", we will develop the New Metro Manila from the ground up!  Does this sound like a plan to you?

Filipino Me, Baha Lang U. - Status Update on the Flood on Sandoval Ave. as of 6 p.m., Sunday, 12 August 2012

Sandoval Ave. in front of Palmdale Heights Condominium

GOOD NEWS!  Land ahoy!  Light vehicles can now pass through Sandoval Ave..  There are still some parts along Sandoval Ave. covered with water.  They are nonetheless, traversable.  I have already seen a lot of taxi cabs and small cars passing by.  The video below is of one sedan coming home to Palmdale Heights.  Ah!  Glorious day, indeed!

Video Update on the Flood in Sandoval Ave. in Pasig City as of 6 p.m., Saturday, 11 August 2012.

As promised, here are the videos of the flood in Sandoval Avenue that I took while riding the yellow dump truck (for free, yey!).  The videos are shaky but YouTube did some "fixing".  They are now "tolerable".  I had a migraine while watching the raw clips.  LOL!  At least, I think, you can endure these videos now.  Can I say, "enjoy the videos"?  I guess not.  LOL!

Photo Updates on the Flood in Sandoval Ave. in Pasig City as of 6 p.m., Saturday, 11 August 2012

As of 6 p.m., 11 August 2012 - flood in Sandoval Ave. is still widespread;  ankle-deep to half-a-tire-deep.

Oh, boy!  There's no more food inside the refrigerator.  Our week's supply - gone!  Well, there's still instant noodles.  But with "preservatives enough to put a horse to sleep" (unverified - LOL), I would not dare test that notion by eating instant noodles morning, noon, and night.  So, I have to go outside and buy food.  I will once again, with all splendor, ride the yellow garbage truck!  Reminiscent of the good old Ketsana days, I guess this would be fun!

Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times - Portrait of the Southwest Monsoon Floods

Our lives are shaped by the tiny hurdles we overcome in our daily grind.  We are unaware but we are actually sharpened, strengthened, and polished.  It's the giant hurdle that creeps like a thief in the night that measures our worth!

Videos of the Flood in Sandoval Avenue as of 6:00 pm, Thursday, 9 August 2012.

Thank God the rains have stopped!  The sun actually peeked a few times.  The skies indeed, unlike for the past few grueling days, provided a very pleasing view.  Looking down however, would disappoint you.  From where I am standing, the flood in Sandoval Avenue in Pasig City has not yet receded.  It is still knee-deep.  The deepest parts are still waist-deep while the shallowest parts are ankle-deep.

Oh No, Not Again! FREAKIN' Southwest Monsoon!

08 August 2012 - Flood from this Fuc%#@$, Freakin' Southwest Monsoon

27 September 2009 -  Flood from Typhoon Ketsana / Ondoy

I thought I was spared.  It really is a humdinger of a southwest monsoon.  Just like probably the thousands of families in evacuation sites right now, I owe this freakin' monsoon a blasphemous rant.  It's sad however, that I can't do it here.  :-(  Just about when the weather is improving (a little bit, as it is still raining as of this writing), there's a knee-deep flood along the stretch of the avenue where my place is located.  I can't go anywhere!

I'm like a broken record - this is just a bad deja vu.  It's like Ketsana all over gain.  I've got the pictures above and videos below to prove it.  Take a close look.  They look very similar, right?

How To Survive a Flood by jemdahunk

Here goes jemdahunk again.  With his funny antics, he came up with this new how-to video - the "How to Survive a Flood".  In these dreadful situations, we Filipinos are famous for "resiliency" and "bayanihan" (i.e., community-wide cooperative endeavor).  Filipinos have survived tragedies and misfortunes, be they caused by natural calamities, effects of economic upheavals of superpower nations, or by land-claiming bully countries.  The secret is Filipino's innate talent in spinning any situation into source of laughter and fun.  Hey, laughter after all is the best medicine, right?

How Much Rainfall Was There From This FREAK Southwest Monsoon?

According to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) tweet (5:40pm), the place shown in the picture above, in front of SM Sta. Mesa in Manila, the waters have risen to more than 6 feet ("lampas-tao") already.

Just how much rainfall did we experience in the last 24 hours?  According to GMA 7's Mang Tani (i.e., Nathaniel Cruz, resident expert meteorologist), we just experienced in the last 24 hours a 324-mm. of rainfall.  The normal rainfall for a whole month (for August) is said to be about 504 mm.  In just 24 hours, we had more than half of what we usually get in 30 days!

Ondoy (Ketsana) Deja Vu. Southwest Monsoon Woes

V. Mapa LRT Station in Manila

Aurora Boulevard in Manila

view from my bedroom window in Pasig City

continuous rain for the past 3 days;  morning looks like the sun is about to go down.  

view on a clear day

I now have a fair understanding of how 40 days and 40 nights of continuous rain could destroy the entire world!  As of this writing (2:30 in the afternoon of 7 August 2012), there is no storm, typhoon, cyclone, low pressure area, nor dangerous weather system afflicting the Philippines, just your usual wet monsoon (i.e., "hanging habagat" in the vernacular).   But Oh My God!  This monsoon is by no means your ordinary wet monsoon.  It's a FREAK southwest monsoon.  It's been continuously raining for the past 3 days and flash floods have already wreaking havoc in central and southern regions of Luzon including the National Capital region, Metro Manila.  It's freakishly scary!