Typhoon Ulysses: as ‘Ondoy’ again

It was like Typhoon “Ondoy” (international name: Ketsana) once again for many in Metro Manila after torrential rains from Typhoon “Ulysses” (international name: Vamco) flooded large areas of the national capital overnight.

The city of Marikina was hit the hardest again, and the riverside Provident Village in Barangay Tañong was once again submerged in the muddy water that reached the second floor of the middle-class community’s houses on Thursday.

Many residents climbed on the roofs of their houses to escape the rising water, parents grabbed their young children, all of them wet from the rain.

George Bolima, who moved into the residential subdivision three years ago, took his family to the second floor of their home around 8 a.m. Fearing the constant rise in the water level and without food or water, he expected an early rescue.

“If the flood continues to increase, then we have nowhere else to go,” he told the Inquirer in an exchange of cell phone messages.

Bolima, who lived with her siblings, parents and a 2-month-old girl, said the floodwaters began to rise at 7 a.m. and in just one hour it swallowed the entire first floor of their home.

“We know that not all of us can be rescued simultaneously here in Provident Village due to the large number of people asking for help. But we hope that the private sector can also help us, ”he said. “We are afraid, the children are afraid. If the flood reaches us, we will have nothing left. “

Bolima could have run out of battery hours later, as he was no longer responding to messages from the Inquirer.

According to Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro, 223 people from Provident Village had been rescued as of 7 p.m. Thursday.

He previously told the Inquirer in a telephone interview that around 9,800 more people received shelter in the city’s 49 evacuation centers.

Climate change problems

He said local authorities were unable to account for many people because they had fled to the homes of relatives or friends in safer areas, or preferred to spend the night in their cars to wait for the floods to subside.

“All the memories of Ondoy came back to us,” Teodoro said. “We know that we did everything we could to prepare for this typhoon, but this is an act of nature. We should take climate change issues seriously and really include [these] in our priority programs. “

The mayor admitted that his city’s resources were “overloaded,” so he asked the national government for rescue workers.

He said he held a conference call with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Wednesday night. Both agreed to deploy rescue teams in several villages that had been submerged.

But rescue efforts in Barangays Nangka, Tumana and Malanday were hampered by the town’s narrow streets, strong running water, and walkways blocked by electrical cables that could already be grasped by hands due to the high water level.

Marikina river swollen

The water level in the Marikina River reached 22 meters at 11 a.m. Thursday, one meter below its maximum height during Ondoy, which dumped a month’s worth of rain over the metropolis in just a few hours.

According to the government meteorological office, Ondoy in October 2009 unleashed 341 millimeters of rain in six hours and a total of 455 millimeters in 24 hours over Metro Manila. That was much more than the 153 mm spilled by Ulises in 24 hours.

Average mean rainfall in Marikina was 118 millimeters between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Thursday, according to data collected from the city’s five monitoring stations.

Teodoro said the local government was employing a community-wide approach, mobilizing people unaffected by the typhoon to donate what they have of food and basic necessities to their expertise in various fields.

“We must also take into account the mental well-being of our compatriots because they were traumatized and stressed by calamities. We need to help them recover and become productive, ”he said.

Quezon City Rescue

In nearby Quezon City, 3,815 families, or 13,000 people, had been evacuated to 57 shelters as of 3 p.m. Thursday.

Several boats had to be deployed to rescue residents stranded in Barangay Bagong Silangan, where floodwaters reached waist-high in some neighborhoods. Some people at Vista Real in Barangay Batasan were taken to safety on an inflatable raft pulled by a jet ski.

Engelbert Aposto, an action officer with the city’s Department of Information and Public Affairs, said 222 health workers were deployed to temporary shelters so that proper health protocols are maintained.

Teams from the city’s Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit were also dispatched to monitor the health status of evacuees, who were given hot meals or food packages.

Aware of COVID-19, Mayor Rex Gatchalian of the city of Valenzuela said the city government had to open more evacuation centers to limit the number of people confined in an enclosed space.

A total of 415 families from towns near the Meycauayan and Tullahan rivers were transferred to six shelters, Gatchalian said in an interview with the Inquirer.

Shelters were 60 percent full, he said.

In addition to food, families received masks and face shields to slow the transmission of the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.

More evacuees from Valenzuela

Gatchalian noted that the number of families that were evacuated was “more than usual.”

“I guess it’s a good sign because people are more aware of prevention than cure,” he said.

But so many brought their pets that the city government ran out of animal cages for them. Gatchalian said it was a “lesson learned” for the city to acquire more cages of this type.

The city was still on alert as the La Mesa dam is leaking and water in rivers near Valenzuela was rising as heavy rains continued to fall Thursday afternoon.

The pumping stations have been running for several days, Gatchalian said.

“Overall, we are fine in the sense that we were prepared,” he added.

Valenzuela and Marikina were inaccessible to all types of vehicles due to deep water on the roads surrounding the cities on Thursday morning, according to the Manila Metropolitan Development Authority (MMDA).

Only ships could pass parts of the North Luzon Highway leading to Valenzuela and the Tullahan Bridge was underwater, it reported.

The Marcos highway, which connects Marikina with Quezón city and Rizal province, was also submerged, he said.

Parts of the main roads in Metro Manila were also impassable for hours until Thursday afternoon due to flooding.

They were Edsa’s southbound lane on Shaw Boulevard, Edsa-Guadalupe’s northbound lane, Edsa-White Plains southbound lane, Roxas Boulevard, Araneta Avenue, España Boulevard, Boni Avenue in Mandaluyong, C-5 , particularly the west side of Western Bicutan in the city of Taguig, the intersection of Alabang-Zapote Road and Molino Road on the border of Las Piñas and Bacoor, and Sucat Road.

Bay Lagoon

Thousands of low-lying barangay families in the cities of Taguig and Muntinlupa fled to various evacuation centers, while Laguna de Bay continued to grow.

The lake’s water level rose to 13.06 meters Thursday morning, beyond the maximum critical level of 12.5 meters, flooding nearby towns and cities in Metro Manila, Laguna and Rizal. During the Ondoy attack in 2009, the lake’s water level reached a maximum of 14 meters.

Families from Pasay, Parañaque and Las Piñas near Manila de Bay were also evacuated.

Strong winds and waves whipped the 3,194-ton Peter Ronna, which was anchored in Manila Bay, against the seawall at SM Mall of Asia.

MMDA appealed to local governments in the National Capital Region less affected by the typhoon to help the cities most affected by Ulises, especially Marikina.

MMDA President Danilo Lim said in a virtual meeting with the NDRRMC on Thursday that his agency had deployed two 692 of its staff around Metro Manila and six rubber boats for rescue efforts in Marikina.

Ambulances, rubber boats, truck-mounted cranes, backhoes, water pumps and rescue teams were also sent to different areas of the metropolis, he said.

MMDA said all of its 64 pumping stations were operational.

On the other hand, around 250 members of the Coast Guard were deployed for rescue work in Metro Manila and in the nearby provinces of Rizal and Cavite.

They helped evacuate 20 families from Barangay Isla Puting Bato in Tondo, Manila.

The PCG rescue groups extended to Marikina and the towns of Rodríguez and Montalbán in Rizal with multi-purpose vehicles, trucks and boats, including 41 new rubber boats.

The PCG’s BN Islander aircraft and Airbus H145 helicopters assisted in the rescue efforts.

The PCG assisted the crew members of the M / TRK Bulusan tanker truck that crashed into a bridge in the city of Navotas due to high waves and high winds Thursday. None was injured.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) suspended flights from midnight until 6 a.m. Thursday. Operations resumed at 8 am, according to Consuelo Bungag, officer in charge of the inspection and evaluation of the airfield with the public affairs department of the Manila International Airport Authority.

Bungag said that Ulysses caused only minimal damage to the Naia. –WITH REPORTS FROM MARIEJO S. RAMOS AND JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE

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