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?
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!
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!
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!
Palmdale Heights Condominium along Sandoval Avenue, Pasig City
- ankle-deep flood
It seems that Pasig City would again be the last city to recover from these floods.(The last time was in 2009 with typhoon Ketsana / Ondoy. The city took a whole month before the floods were completely pumped out and gone.) While some areas in Manila that had more than 15-feet of flood water (such as the Lagusnilad tunnel and the Quiapo-Recto underpass) are now open to traffic, a lot of communities in Pasig City situated near the floodway and Laguna de Bay are still drenched in flood water.
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?
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!
Basking in the sun… frolicking on the beach… snorkeling in the blue clear waters. It's your ideal tropical paradise getaway. Wouldn't it be nice to do all of these things any time of the year? Yes, of course. It'll be fantastic. It's just like what Rachel Berry of Glee thought about my country, the Philippines. Some people (if not a lot) think that it's 365 days of warm sunny days in the tropical region which includes the Philippines. Dead wrong! Sunshine Corazon played by Charice, in reply to Rachel Berry said, "well, except for the monsoon...". A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind in the region of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, blowing from the southwest between May and September, bringing in rain and in most cases typhoons. We Filipinos consider the start of the "rainy season" on June. In fact, we just experienced the first storm of the year last weekend, and as a usual annual occurrence, we are expecting 15 to 20 more. Can you believe it? It does kind of break your tropical paradise notion, doesn't it?
HARROWING MEMORIES.
The year was 2009. Deadly Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy in the vernacular) left a devastating mark in the heart of the Philippines. The capital region, Metro Manila, on that fateful day of September 26 was horribly slashed by massive floods that resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives, displacement of more than a hundred thousand families, and destroyed billions of Pesos worth of properties. At that time, I was trapped in my home, a condominium unit, for three days with very little food and water, and no electricity. I was lucky!
the exodus
On the fourth day, people in our condominium building and I, rode a dump truck out of the shoulder-deep flooded condo-complex. While riding on that garbage truck, I took these pictures and video clips. The exodus of the people fleeing their homes with most of them bravely walking the deep flood is still fresh in my memory like it was just yesterday. Watch the short video clip at the bottom of this post and see how terrible the flood was.
In 2011, barely six months ago, during the Christmas holiday, the deadliest typhoon has hit the Philippines. The raging flash floods caused by Typhoon Washi (Sendong in the vernacular) has claimed quite a number of lives and devastated major cities in the southern part of the Philippines, in Mindanao. The number of people dead climbed to thousands and still a lot are missing up to now.
ruined car
I always remember these tragic events because they serve as fervent reminders of the force of nature, the arrogance of humans, and how our lives and demise are greatly influenced by our indifference to Mother Earth. Let me explain…
NATURALLY INDIFFERENT?
Cyclones just like Tsunamis, twisters, and earthquakes are forces of nature. We already know that! We also know that we already have in our hands hundreds of years of data, as well as significant findings of scientific observations and research from all over the world. How come then that we still lose lives and properties from typhoons such as Ketsana and Washi?
ruined ATM
I bet you can readily enumerate a dozen reasons. For me, the significant cause is indifference. A candy wrapper or a cigarette butt thrown out there. "No biggie", you think. Some developers build apartment complexes and malls beside a river. Some parts of the river have to be reclaimed in order to complete the development project. "It's progress", you say. Trees were cut for lumber but moreso to clear that part of the mountain where ores and minerals will be mined. "It provides a steady source of income for the local people", you claim.
Meanwhile, drainage systems and sewers are clogged by the carelessly thrown candy wrappers, cigarette butts, plastic bottles, and other non-biodegradable wastes. RIvers and tributaries gets smaller and narrower due to nearby real estate development. The narrowed waterways become bottlenecks where the flow of water to the sea slowed down if not completely halted, causing floods. Mountains are eroding simply because there are no more trees holding the soil and absorbing the water running down from the top. Some mountains are even flattened due to excessive mining.
STOP THE MADNESS!
In the guises of (1) thought-to-be-harmless and petty actions, (2) progress, and (3) seemingly job-generating developments, we harm nature! This is our indifference to Mother Earth. We then suffer the consequences of our own actions.
I always say that the things around us immediately change when we change our thoughts. Take action! Stop the indifference! Care for nature now! When we care for Mother Earth, we care for all humankind...
