The Perfect(ly awful) Flood
"We have areas where our people can't get in because there are live wires in the water. They face the risk of electrocution. We just have to grin and bear it and do our best to rescue people." Red Cross of the Philippines
It's hard to imagine anyone actually grinning, but bearing it they are. Using rafts and makeshift boats to get through flooded slum areas in Manila. Racing to rescue people from the flood waters inundating the city's streets and homes. Streets turned into rivers after a number of tropical storms during a seasonal period of monsoon rains.
Everything has come to a halt; schools, business and government offices closed. Neighbourhood after neighbourhood is being submerged with tens of thousands of people being rescued or attempting to swim to safety. Others huddle desperately on rooftops, waiting anxiously for the waters to subside. And rescue workers doing their best to pluck people from the roofs.
The single highway linking Manila to the north of the country was closed to traffic, entirely submerged. Motorists found themselves stranded. Over ten million people live in Manila, located in a low-lying area between a large lake and the ocean. A most unstrategic location for a city, given the geography and the unfailing seasonal weather events where monsoons lead to flooding.
The lake, Laguna de Bay at the southern end of the city, drains to the ocean through the Pasig River, running through the centre of town. The lake and the river are silted heavily and prone, as a result, to overflowing. And this is precisely what has occurred. Complicated by a major dam in the north of the city that crested forcing officials to open floodgates.
The ocean bay beside Manila has become swollen during high tide. This has resulted in perfectly catastrophic conditions, ripe for intense flooding, creating a deluge of water from the northern dam, the southern lake, the ocean to the west and an overflowing river down the centre.
Labels: Environment, Natural Disasters
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, August 09, 2012
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