Bus forcing its way through the flood
I woke up early yesterday morning to prepare for work and little did I know that it’s going to be a record rainfall day in the Philippines. The rain was brought by typhoon locally named Ondoy or known as Ketsana internationally. It touches down Manila early Saturday morning. I went to work at 7am and even before I’ve reached my office, rain starts to get heavy. I work at the 15th floor of a 40 story building and my desk over looking Makati Skyline so I can see the rain, the dark sky as visibility decreases. By 8am rainfall gets worst and I can’t see nearby buildings anymore.
I logged in on some online radio stations on the internet and heard that some areas were already heavy flooded. The sky really opened up and Ondoy unleashed its wrath by dropping 13.5 inches of rain in a span of 6 hours. This is the average rainfall in a month in Manila. To put this in proper perspective, Katrina, the hurricane that wrecked havoc in New Orleans dumped more than an inch of rain in 3 hours, yesterday typhoon Ondoy rainfall was 2.25 inch every hour or 6.5 times more than hurricane Katrina. I know Katrina’s damage was much worse but just want to compare the amount of rainfall between two calamities. Working all day can’t take away the fact that even though I am safe inside the building right now, but how will I get home later knowing major thoroughfares are 6 feet underwater and back streets are all submerged which some as high as 12 feet.
Videos and Pictures of the flooding starts to show up on my Facebook and Twitter later in the day and I see cars trapped in flooded streets, people on the roof of their houses with flood water keeps on rising. I have a co worker who didn’t manage to come to work, she’s texting us all day that the water is already inside their house and keeps on climbing and reaching the second floor of the house.
Around 4 in the afternoon the rain started to ease up and by 7pm it’s just a normal rain and stopped altogether by 9pm. I had to wait for another a couple of hours before going home because I want to make sure the water already subsided. Going home I saw dozens and dozens of cars, SUV’s, buses, trucks parked at the side of the highway. These are the vehicles that wasn’t so fortunate to get caught up during the floods. Good thing they can start to go home now because I saw tow trucks and flatbed picking up these vehicles. The road was also littered with dirt and thrash brought by the flooding and its everywhere.
Here are some of the images I gathered on the internet showing the flooding. Mostly are aftermath pictures.
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- SM Condo parking
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- Child in flood
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- Aftermath
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- Stucked
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- H2 Humvee
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- Hold on tight
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- Domino effect
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- At train station
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- No way out
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- Side
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- Braving the flood
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- Open window
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- Bus forcing its way
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- Van roof
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- Rooftop of Jeepney
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- On top
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- Crowded water
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- Destruction
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- People taking shelter
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- Car roof
Ondoy is the worst typhoon ever to hit the Philippines. There had been floods in places that never had water before. Houses situated on hills gets flooded. High areas that never seen a flood before submerged. A month’s worth of rain fell in just six hours over Metro Manila yesterday, triggering the worst floods in over 40 years, stranding people on rooftops, causing wide-spread blackouts and killing at least 70 people, leaving thousands stranded in streets and displacing a quarter million families. It was fortunate this happened on a Saturday and not on weekdays as people and vehicles on the street could be 200 percent more and it could have been much worse.
Now this is scary
[pro-player width='450' height='280' type='video' image='http://www.nothingbutrandom.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Girl%20submerged.jpg']http://www.nothingbutrandom.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Manila-Flood-09-26-2009.flv[/pro-player]
Watch as the van on the other side of the fence gets eaten by the flood at the later part of the clip.
This is the typhoon with most rains in so little time I’ve experienced. How about you? What is your worst rain/flooding experience?
Update 09/28: Now it’s 105 Dead plus dozens missing and 400,000 individuals affected throughout the metropolis and nearby provinces.
Update 09/29: Dead climbed to 142 now.
Update 09/30: 256 people confirmed dead.
Last update: Officially there are about 450 dead and half a million individuals affected by typhoon Ondoy.
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It seems like in jakarta back than. Jakarta already became waterworld in 2008, if i am not mistaken.
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If the water was clean then it could all be a big theme park. A sort of log flume without any logs. When it flooded in a town near me, then people were doing kayaking through the streets and shops
Fingers are crossed for you and everyone else going through this disaster: thank you for reporting it and providing pics to us.
I hope you and everyone else you know is okay.
Thank you ashok. I am one of those fortunate that wasn’t get affected as I was at work the whole time and just went home when everything is okay but some villages still under water at this moment.
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I hope you and your family are fine, Zee.
It´s shocking how many of this natural disasters happen over there… and how little prepared people are for them. I guess there´s not much to do to be ready for that, and no one wants to think it´ll happen again.
Yeah we are fine but 400,000 people were unfortunate to be affected. Some areas that haven’t experience flooding ever but this time it was waist deep. Really the worst flood in half century and record rainfall too. Thanks for dropping by Arisu.
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This news really sucks I have a few friends over in Manila as well as one of my associates, he says it’s a nightmare over there.
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Nightmare indeed as Ondoy brought the worst flooding in the Philippines. Still no classes in schools as some areas are still with knee deep water and some schools became shelter for the homeless.
It’s a good thing we are on a higher ground but all access going to manila are all flooded, i tried yesterday to come to work but even my bike cannot get through, My sister, her husband and 2 kids were affected living in pasig and it was waist deep high, rescue was too slow.. Fortunately, we were able to get my sister and her family. It was a total disaster!
Good thing they are safe now. We are still fortunate compared to the others. Let just hope that the typhoon brewing in the east right now is just a weak typhoon.
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You know what, at the end of the day I tell to myself that my family and relatves are indeed lucky. I mean, I cant even imagine how people fared with this catastrophy especially those in the most affected areas..
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Yes thats the most important thing. I also consider myself lucky as I didn’t lose anything unlike our thousands of countrymen who loses their all (car, appliances, houses, lives, etc). Thanks for dropping by Melvin.
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It seems that the end of the world is near. I saw what’s happened in your country from TV, and they said that another disaster was about to happen again soon. I sincerly hope you will overcome it. I’ll cross my fingers for you and everyone in your country. That’s really a living nightmare. Take Care!
Thank you Ben. A friend lost her Grandpa and was found dead the day after, the same friend got her house underwater up to 2nd floor. More than a dozen died in one village alone with about a hundred or so houses underwater. Now I heard there’s a tsunami in the pacific because of 7.9 quake. I hope you are wrong that the end is near.
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I had no idea you lived in Metro Manila, too!!!
Amazing photos you have there!!!! Where did you find those??
Thank you for all of your support lately! We all have to support each other through all of this!
Today the sun is shining. Today is better than yesterday.
Yeah I actually thought of you while writing this article because I only knew few bloggers from here, most of my readers and visitors are from outside the country. Thank you for your support too and I hope the worst is over because in some places water is still waist deep high like where a couple of co workers lived. Also a typhoon is supposedly coming tonight, I’m praying its a weak typhoon this time.
I am sorry to have been away from your blog for a few days. I am trying to catch-up on some of your previous posts as we speak.
I’m glad you and your family were OK. Some of those pictures were amazing. Not in a good way, but amazing nonetheless.
TCC, thanks for dropping by again. Yes we are okay but some friends are not. I considered myself and my family very lucky to escape this major calamity in our country.
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Wow, what an experience to be part of. Nature is sure powerful, and it’s amazing to capture the moments when humanity meets it, straight in the middle. Amazing from the sense that earth is as much as a living energy, as we are. Of course, that does not help the situation of when humans are hurt in it, but streamlines the reality and I think that’s the ultimate acceptance despite disaster.
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Yas Ana, nature is really powerful. And all we can do is to accept and be prepared for everything. Right now there is a Super Typhoon coming towards the Philippines and might touch down in the afternoon.
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Sad photographs, very sad. Good luck with that new typhoon.
We were fortunate our region has been spared by the new typhoon but the provinces in the North was hit.
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Damn, that’s terrible. Hopefully there aren’t any more casualties
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Well so far the total death count is almost 500. Hopefully thats it.
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Yeah, even here at olongapo city. nice thing that typhoon pepeng didnt hit us directly.
thanks,
-Nhoel of http://keywordspeak.com
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Yes, we are thankful that Typhoon Pepeng changed its course. Thanks for your visit Nhoel.
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This would be a real trouble time for everyone. In such circumstances, there are chances of electric shocks as well, this scenario seems like Mumbai Rainfall I saw in documentary recently.
Now just few days ago, tsunami hit Sumatra and I haven’t seen much images of it so lets hope for the best.
You are right Ryan, seems like we are typhoon magnet at the moment. Some areas are still flooded up to 6 feet.
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That’s some pretty scary stuff, I’m glad your alright. It seems that this kind of stuff just keeps happening these days whether its this, Katrina, or now Haiti; natural disasters seem to be playing a larger and larger role in everyday life.
Yes seems like more natural calamities are happening these days.
Wow, thats so scary. Thats worse than Jakarta IMO. I hope everyone is OK.
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Thanks for leaving your comment Dave. Yes good thing I’m at work and also our house is located in a higher ground.
This is interesting stuff, thanks for writing. I was in my condo at the time (west makati), it always floods there so we didnt realize how bad it was until the next day.
very sad pictures
I remember driving from makati to quezon city. i forgot the name of the area but it was a bout half way there. that was shocking- house contents piled up in the streets and the smell was so bad. this was a week after the flooding.