Disaster season 2008

I just made it through my third typhoon season in the Philippines and even though the damage caused was nothing compared to the season of 2006 (remember typhoons Reming and Milenyo), Bikol is still an uncertain and volatile place to live. This year, the typhoons were mild and the winds were weak but there have been heavy rains extending 2 months into what is now supposed to be the dry season. The Philippines can be brutally hot when the time is right, but honestly I have been looking forward to a break from the overcast sky and intermittent downpour.

The rains fall with such intensity that the water cannot runoff fast enough, the result of which is widespread flooding and landslides.

Aquinas University (called Aquarium behind its back) is adjacent to the largest river in the province, the Yawa, which is tempermental and likes to flood and cancel classes on a regular basis. After typhoon Reming's reaming of the province, the school planners wised up and built all classrooms at least a meter above the floodplain so the school would be more resillient to disasters, but that has only worked so well.



During a particularly torrential rainstorm, students and teachers (and Peace Corps Volunteers) flee the flooding.


To escape the rising floodwaters without getting your feet wet, improvise a bridge!


The canteen, underwater

When weak, clayey soil becomes saturated with water, it becomes more prone to fail. Due to the soil in Albay, as well as the steep hills, makes the danger of landslides a very real one. There is no local budget for any kind of preventative measures besides relocating families to some where flatter, so the earth reshapes itself on a regular basis.

They just never let up


A minor slope failure in an area where I work regularly. You can see the failure plane around the rim of this area


A landslide diverted a river from its natural course and through the yard of this house


More drowned vehicles


The shoulder of the road has been totally scoured by the new river


These were semi-trucks at one point...


Manmade Disasters

On a morning much like any other, I walked out of my house full of caffeine and oatmeal, headed for parts unknown. As I passed a jeep parked on my street, I noticed some Filipinos running around and yelling at each other. Things are generally quiet and calm in my neighborhood so I went to investigate and found that a jeep parked on my street had a trickle of flame coming from the gas tank.

People ran back and forth throwing wet towels and sand bags at the flames, to no avail. Within 30 seconds of my watching the car, the car was a fireball with a tower of black smoke covering the nearby houses.


The towering inferno


"Oh shit, I hope I didn't leave my wallet in there!!"

Thinking like an American, I turned to the man next to me:

"Do you have a phone? We should call the fire department or someone with some water!"

"Oye, sorry sir. Walang load." (He didn't have enough prepaid credits on his phone to call anyone who might be able to help.)

At this point, he turned away from me and went back to watching the fire begin to spread to other vehicles and nearby houses.


The crowd that has gathered to stare dumbly and not do anything about the flaming car

Instead of lecturing people on the need to help others around you and passing out cards with the local emergency number (117) on them, I picked up my phone and called the local fire department.

I'll be honest, I didn't have much faith in the fire department here at first, but that has changed. Using the stopwatch on my phone, I marked them at a 4 minute response time; better than most places in the states. Luckily for us, it is national fire prevention month in Albay, so the firemen were on top of their game.


If it is going to be an official awareness month of any kind, you HAVE to have a banner


Only in the Philippines would you see a fireman wearing shorts and tsinelas (flip-flops)


Local reporters arrived moments after the fire department


As the fire died down, the crowd moved in until everyone was huddled around the burnt hull of this poor guys jeep


Videoke: A true natural disaster


Hanging out on the fresh lava flow from Mt. Mayon


Soon-to-be-cooked pig


Oh the sun'll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun