Here comes the sun

IN the wee hours of July 24, a damp Wednesday, residents of Marikina City were awakened from a deep slumber by the harrowing downpour—but oh, this looked all too familiar.

My wife, Inee Martinez-Jugado, couldn’t sleep that night. “I can’t sleep, I’m afraid,” she repeatedly said, her voice cracking, nearly weeping.

She was born and raised in Marikina and suffered from the wrath of tropical storm “Ondoy” 15 years ago when she just a college freshman. Inee’s family survived Ondoy but endured a recurring trauma.

Frightening memories of Ondoy such as the non-stop rains that caused massive flooding, power outages, collapsed buildings, establishments, houses, and 70 people perished in the “Shoe Capital of the Philippines” alone—and at least 464 in Metro Manila—came back so vividly that it felt like it was just yesterday.

With all my might, I assured her we were safe since we lived in a flood-free village in Antipolo City. That only proved to be the calm before the storm—literally and figuratively.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), “Carina” (international name Gaemi) got to super typhoon status and enhanced the southwest monsoon before making landfall in Taiwan while inundating the Metropolis from Marikina, Quezon City, Caloocan, Taguig, Muntinlupa, Pasay, Malabon, Navotas, Pasig, and the nation’s capital, Manila.

The water level of the Marikina River reached a staggering 20.7 meters late Wednesday afternoon, prompting a forced evacuation.

In comparison, the Marikina River rose to 21.5 meters during Ondoy and 21.8 meters during typhoon Ulysses, which hit the city in late 2020 at the peak of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic

Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. last Wednesday placed Metro Manila and nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Bataan, Batangas, and Cavite under a state of calamity because of massive flooding caused by heavy rains in the past days.

Bataan and Pampanga were also affected by Carina.

Rainfall data from PAGASA also showed Carina dumped more rain in Quezon City than Ondoy on September 26, 2009.

Between 2 a.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday, 461.4 millimeters of rain was tallied in Science