Southwest Monsoon, "Habagat"

When I was still a child, everytime the name of the city I was born and grew up in came up, people normally thought of this urbanized area with one of the richest local governments in the country and with the most disciplined residents. When one says Marikina, awards recognizing excellence in governance and health and environment initiative come into mind.

Marikina River

However, years and a couple of typhoons after, Marikina can now never be thought of without remembering Ondoy. Tropical storm Ondoy (Typhoon Ketsana), a devastating typhoon storm that killed more than 300 people and devastated hundreds of thousands of families in 2009, left the Philippines, specifically the residents of my hometown in fearful distress every rainfall.

Since Monday,  the tremendous rainfall has left several roads impassable and the sidewalk area of the river saturated. 

And just recently, a southwest monsoon locally known as 'Hanging Habagat' has displaced hundreds and killed more than 20 Filipinos. Heavily affected areas aside from Marikina include Pasig, Cainta (Rizal), Navotas, Valenzuela - flood-prone areas in the Metro and other low-lying areas in Luzon such as Pampanga and Bulacan. 

Aftermath

The following photos were taken by me just this afternoon. The water level in the Marikina River has started to go down from its highest yesterday at 21.4 meters. The normal water level is less than 15 meters reference at sea level. Marikina City has Water Alarm Levels, each alarm stage depending on the water level of the Marikina River. Alarm Level No. 1 is raised when water level reaches 15 meters. It warns residents near the river that the water level is rising. Alarm Level No. 2 on the other hand, sets everyone to prepare for evacuation as the water level reaches 16 meters.  Lastly, evacuation is ordered when Alarm Level No. 3 is raised, meaning water level has gone up to 17 meters.

Yesterday afternoon, I was still able to pass by Bayan, our (main)town (where the Municipal Health Office, Municipal Hall, Main Post Office etc., are located). The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office has said that the Habagat's rainfall has been worse than Ondoy with 472 millimeters rainfall - 148.5 millimeters more than Ondoy's rainfall during the same time period.

Road to the Marikina River

The rain has so far stopped and hopefully no typhoon will come after this monsoon. Now we will know if we have learned something from the past experiences with tropical storms especially Ondoy, which happened 2 years ago but seems to have just occurred yesterday.

P.S. I feel extremely proud of and grateful for the team of rescuers and volunteers that have exhausted and are still continuing to exhaust their means and themselves to help others.