Typhoon Pedring, Weather Change and the Filipino
This was supposed to be an innocuous little weather disturbance that – if I remember correctly – was initially pegged with a 20% chance of becoming a tropical depression by a privately maintained weather web site that I frequently visit. As happens when a low pressure disturbance procrastinates over open oceans, it gathers strength and becomes a threat to those who fearfully await on land. To make things worse, ocean waters were warm the other week and, therefore, the very fuel that the erstwhile innocuous system needed to become a monster.
Soon, the weather disturbance was given a code name: 20W. If it was to intensify further – as it did – it was to become internationally called Nesat. If it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), well, there was a barber’s name waiting for it.
Not that weather systems ever make it easy for those trying to figure out what they will do over a period of time. Last week, 20W a.k.a. Nesat started moving due west for a while; which alarmingly meant that there was an increased chance of it hitting the country. Forecast tracks were recalculated and new models showed it making landfall somewhere just north of Casiguran in Quezon.
By Sunday night, and just a day and a half from projected landfall, I still did not think that the system’s wind speeds were all that remarkable. Signal number 3 at best, the forecasters said over the weekend news shows. I may sound blasé over this; but remember we have had Category 4 and 5 howlers with amazing regularity over the past five years.
Sometime in the middle of the night when I got up to pee, though, the winds were whistling menacingly outside. That was strange! The power had been cut; and this irritated me somewhat because I was certain that the typhoon was way north of us. I thought the power cooperative was being overly cautious. When I returned to bed to try to get back to sleep, I wondered, however, if Pedring made a sudden diabolical detour south.
So, it went on till midday yesterday; the whistling of the wind, I mean. Curiously, although there were spurts of rain, these were never as hard as I feared. By mid-afternoon, I was even able to venture outside to sweep away the fallen leaves and twigs from off the driveway.
Of course, the evening news shows – and thank God that the power came on late in the afternoon – showed others to be not so fortunate. Albeit, although I am tempted to thank God that I am in Batangas, I will not do so because being in the way of a rampaging typhoon is always something of a lottery. You just never know when you will be next. Knock on wood.
So, as could be expected, TV Patrol showed footage after footage of Pedring-related incidents: flooded streets, people being evacuated, uprooted trees and houses destroyed. I know we live in typhoon alley; but one just never gets numbed by looking at the destruction. I still get horrified each time.
I dunno… Something is just not right about the weather these days. Storm surge: that, the PAGASA guy said last night, was the reason for the flooding in Manila. The typhoon, unfortunately, happened to arrive just as the tide was coming in. It’s the first time that storm surge had breached the sea wall of Roxas Boulevard, the weatherman started to say. Noticeably, he checked himself; my hunch was that he might have thought out loud but had not previously established his statement with historical data yet.
Seriously, does anyone remember storm surge flooding Manila? I mean, it’s the sort of thing you associate with the Gulf of Mexico or something. I have seen high waves on Manila Bay before; but the ones shown on TV last night were Hawaii Five-O stuff.
Back to Pedring, it is now thankfully heading for the island of Hainan or thereabouts. Who wants to know? We have our own wounds to lick; and PAGASA likes to tell us that there are still – statistically, at least – a few more coming before the year is over. Not that I expect many of our countrymen to be really fazed. Already, with Pedring just barely out of the country, a few have already found ways to make us all laugh despite all the destruction. Just being Filipino, I guess.
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