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More flash floods due to intense downpours
Yesterday’s commute to our home was much longer than usual. It took us around 2 hours to get home even after leaving our office around 6PM. We experienced the wake or aftermath of congestion caused mainly by the flash floods and electrical damage to the LRT Line 2. The flash floods were caused by the intense rains after noon time. Floods were reported around Metro Manila but the one that ultimately affected us were the flood along Ortigas Avenue Extension near the Valley Golf gate. A long stretch was impassable to most vehicles. Our daughter got home 2.5 hours after her school dismissal when it usually only took around 1 hour on typical mid afternoon traffic along that corridor. The route we took home via Marcos Highway was affected by so many passengers getting stranded by the Line 2’s suspension of services between Santolan and Antipolo Stations. People occupied the traffic lanes of Marcos Highway as they positioned themselves to get to the next available jeepney or bus. Many chose to walk towards Ligaya and even Sta. Lucia Mall where many jeepneys bound for Rizal towns turnaround.
Line 2 suspended operations between Santolan and Antipolo Stations due to electrical damage sustained after a lightning strike damaged the catenary that transmitted power to the trains.
Passengers occupied the traffic lanes of Marcos Highway; many already tired from a day’s work or school. LRTA did not seem to have a plan or protocol to address such situations. Perhaps a call to bus companies or even the MMDA and LGUs like Antipolo, Cainta, Marikina and Pasig could have alleviated the situation of commuters? Antipolo did send vehicles to ferry passengers but they were not enough for the demand. These are exactly the situations that make public transportation unattractive to many people.
I hope we’ve (read: authorities including national and local governments) learned from this year’s weather-related problems and will address these so we can have less disruptions and losses in the coming years. It is predicted that we will have an intense El Niño so that means a long dry spell and also hotter days ahead. Perhaps nature’s message this year is that there’s enough water (from rain) and she is challenging us to come up with a system and facilities that will retain such amounts of water for the dry seasons?
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Diskarte sa tag ulan – child rider safety
Sharing this photo of a child taking cover from the rain using her adult companion’s jacket. it is obviously not a safe situation or set up but perhaps it suffices for the moment.
Kids should have the necessary gear like a child- sized helmet for safe riding and a jacket or coat to protect the kid from the rains. The provision of these is the responsibility of adults particularly the parents or guardians of the child.
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Nice day for a walk!
The sun’s finally out after so many days of heavy rains (and floods). It’s nice to be walking again outdoors instead of indoors (building stairs and corridors, and malls).
It’s quite pleasant out with a cool breeze that encourages us to do outdoor activities. I did my walking this morning and will be walking again later today!
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U-turn due to inclement weather
I was on my way to the office this morning to check on our buildings and get some lecture materials. I had to go back as the intense rains immediately flooded the roads along the way.
Here are some photos this morning on my way to UP and when we turned back:
Malacanang has again suspended F2F classes and government offices have been advised to be alternative modes of operations. Is this the new normal when we have inclement weather? Are we supposed to be adjusting again and expected to be resilient in these times?
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Commuting through floods
Yesterday’s rains were catastrophic. Reports stated that a week’s rains fell over a period of 2 to 5 hours, depending on where you were in the Mega Manila area. The resulting floods provided misery to people in flood-prone areas as well as those who had to go through the floods on their commutes to their homes. Here are photos from my commute going home yesterday. I relied on Waze for the shortest travel time and the app took me to flooded areas in Cainta. Perhaps it assumed my vehicle can safety navigate the floodwaters?
Flooded street in Gruar Subdivision in Cainta, Rizal
Flooded A. Bonifacio Avenue in Cainta, Rizal towards Taytay, Rizal. This is the main avenue through the heart of Cainta.
Flooded streets in the area leading to Hunters ROTC Street. These residential areas are prone to flooding and children commonly play in the floodwaters – certainly at risk from getting sick from whatever it is in the waters.
This is Ortigas Avenue Extension and on the way up to Antipolo. This area wasn’t flooded before and residents attribute the floods to the high-rise residential buildings and commercial development in the area. That’s actually a lot of run-off not absorbed by a drainage system that’s supposed to have been constructed with the developments. Did the local government of Taytay, Rizal make an evaluation of this before approving the projects?
Is there an end to this flood problem? Are the solutions really being implemented or, as we’ve learned the past so many months, are we being taken for a ride by our so-called leaders and agencies that are supposed to address these problems. People are supposed to be tired of the resilience story being peddled by politicians but the clamor seems to be in social media only and the real people who are lobbying for solutions have to contend with trolls who are also peddling their own narrative for their masters.
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Is it the wet season already?
It has been raining the past few days though it’s still quite hot especially from the morning til noontime. While the rains were not exactly downpours for most cases, today was probably the heaviest in terms of visibility (near zero), coverage (it was raining along my entire commute from Quezon City to Antipolo) and length (about an hour). This was what it looked like with the wipers off:
The rains are definitely welcome from the perspective of temperatures. It gives us cooler weather everywhere though short showers often lead to even hotter and humid conditions (singaw?). The flash floods also help us not to forget the anomalous and immoral actions of politicians and DPWH officials.
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Flash floods in May
It finally rained all over Metro Manila and Rizal today. This morning’s rains were light. The drizzle was enough though to prevent me from walking the dogs. The afternoon rains were more intense though in bursts rather than sustained. Still, this resulted in flash floods everywhere. The photo below shows the situation along Katipunan Road in White Plains.
The flash floods bring us again to the flood control mess that remains unresolved. It is not just a problem of the poor, or the middle class but of everyone affected by the floods. It’s just that many are more severely affected than others. The photo above might be a slight concern of the more wealthy people in that neighborhood. They probably don’t need to worry of flood waters entering their homes and damaging properties. Other people are not as lucky and have to deal with floods for a major part of the year. The suffering is real and it’s also because many chose to elect inept, incompetent and corrupt people who themselves enabled other inept, incompetent and corrupt people to proliferate and operate with no regards for morality, even humanity.
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“Nobody Walks Here. It’s Too Hot or Cold or Wet or Dry.”
I’m sharing this article as it provides a clear response to the question about walking under different circumstances. Those circumstances include weather conditions. How many times have we heard people saying “people won’t walk because it’s too hot or rainy” ? Maulan (rainy)! Mainit (too hot)! And yet we find a lot of people walking, even when its extremely hot or the rains are pouring.
Source: “Nobody Walks Here. It’s Too Hot or Cold or Wet or Dry.”
Quoting from the article:
“The human ability to adapt is the key to our spectacular success on this planet. Our problem is that the people who lead our public conversations, our elites of wealth and opinion, are often some of the least adaptable people on earth. And when societies assume that we should listen to those people, we all end up internalizing the message that there’s something wrong with us if we even try to walk…
…Sometimes walking a few blocks is the key to liberty and prosperity in someone’s life. Most people do what makes sense in the place where they live. Only if we recognize that will we make the investments in urban design to make walking more bearable in extreme weather. And only then will our cities include everyone.”
Here’s another quote and a take on what certain people say that often influences our choice for walking:
“The functionality of a city, and of its transport system, arises from the sum of everyone’s choices about how to travel, not just the preferences of elites. When elites make pronouncements about what “people” will tolerate, while really speaking only of themselves, they mislead us about how cities actually succeed. They also demean the contributions of the vast majority of people who are in fact tolerating extreme weather to do whatever will give their lives meaning and value.”
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On parking for typhoons
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recently issued a memo to shopping mall operators in Metro Manila in relation to the anticipated arrival and onslaught of a super typhoon. I reproduce the memo below:
As of this morning, most if not all mall operators (at least all of the major ones – SM, Robinsons, Ayala and Megaworld) have responded positively. Some observations this morning though shows a lot of people already lining up their vehicles at the malls to take advantage of the free parking. It seems a lot of people have misunderstood the memo and responses (from the malls) to mean there’s free parking from today til Monday. Let’s assume that most of these people live in flood prone areas and that many of them probably don’t have garages in their homes. This somewhat shows us another angle of vehicle ownership and the lack of parking for many. It also somehow tells us something about our dependency on cars and how we really need to have a better transportation system.
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Vehicle refuge during floods
Passing Felix Avenue one early morning this week, I saw familiar scene. There were lots of vehicles parked along Felix Avenue (formerly Imelda Avenue) including the service roads along either side of this major road connecting Marcos Highway and Ortigas Avenue Extension.
These vehicles are owned by residents of subdivisions along the avenue whose areas are prone to flooding. These include Vista Verde, Metroville, Kasibulan, Karangalan and the two Green Parks. I didn’t see this along the stretch so the other flood prone villages like Village East and Country Homes. Perhaps they have been able to adapt better?
Car-centric discussions aside, when you go the ‘east’ you will notice a lot of people using SUVs. One reason probably is because many Rizal towns including Antipolo City, and Pasig and Marikina Cities are prone to flooding. Can you imagine over 50 years of flooding in these areas? And then with the current investigations concerning flood control projects, have you wondered if the ‘east’ really got their taxpayers’ money’s worth in terms of interventions?
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