Floods in the Philippines

Morning News to August 10, 2012, Friday Metro Manila, Philippines

Widespread flooding in the Philippines engulfed Metro Manila as of today, leaving many distraught residents stranded on the roofs of their homes, awaiting rescue. Monsoon rains, which flooded rivers and most of the city’s streets, left thousands of the city’s inhabitants homeless.

In the outlying provinces, entire neighborhoods were evacuated as the water level had reached more than two meters in height, making all streets impassable except for cargo trucks and rubber boats.

The government’s National Disaster Coordination Council is in a state of rescue mode, placing affected residents in emergency shelters, which are now overflowing with people in need of help.

I was reading this comment online, while having coffee in my room. I am one of the lucky few to live in the metro, where the subdivision developer had the foresight to elevate the entire five-acre subdivision just a few feet from the national highway. On top of that, the subdivision management prescribed a building ordinance years ago, that the house foundation of all residential units was raised one meter above street level. When my parents built the family’s residential bungalow, they complained about the added cost of raising the entire structure. There were no floods in the area forty years ago, and they did not understand why the need to raise. But that developer’s foresight helped save this entire community from the onslaught of flooding, which is now being experienced by most residents of Metro Manila and the outlying areas.

In the provinces, entire communities that were located near the Laguna Lake area were inundated with water spilling into the streets. The onset of devastating flash floods reaching neck-deep levels within a few minutes surprised many people. The degree of devastation to entire communities left everyone in shock. This moving situation led the people of the neighborhood to have no choice but to climb to the roofs to save themselves.

The problem of flooding had always gripped the entire nation, during the rainy months of May through December. This is what is known as the rainy season where typhoons prevail in the Philippines and monsoon rains wreak havoc across the nation. However, the flooding in the past week was not caused by a typhoon, but by monsoon rains. The amount of rain and its ferocity moved the entire population. The devastation it caused was so great that it left nearly a million people affected and relocated from their homes.

Filipinos are known to be a hardy breed and have tremendous stamina for great hardships. However, this exciting scenario cannot last forever. There is now a clamor for National Leadership to find ways to better address the flooding in the Philippines, which continues to plague the country every year. I hope that a viable solution will soon be found to help alleviate the suffering and misery of the entire nation.