Further threats to Philippines

New storm threatens flood-hit Philippines

Philippine authorities are evacuating more people from their homes in the capital Manila, as a new storm heads for the city just a week after it was inundated by torrential monsoon rains.

ABC,

13 August, 2012

Authorities are on alert as nine northern provinces brace for the effects of storm Kai-Tak, which has intensified with heavy rain and wind speeds reaching up to 80 kilometres an hour.

Rescuers have begun evacuating families in landslide-prone areas of Manila as the new storm threatens the country's northern region.

A number of schools in the nearby province of Cavite, which was flooded last week, were closed on Monday due to flooding and intermittent rain.

Manila and parts of the country's north are still recovering from massive floods spawned by strong monsoon rains last week, which killed more than 90 people and displaced more than three million.

While flooding that covered 80 per cent of Manila last week has largely subsided, vast areas of mainly rice-growing provinces to the north are still under water.

Most of the 411,000 people who are crammed into gymnasiums, schools and other government evacuation centres were in the flooded farming provinces, with many others struggling by living in partly submerged homes.

"These are the people we are most worried about," civil defence chief Benito Ramos said.

"We have not yet fully recovered and here comes another storm."

Two weeks of relentless monsoon rains peaked early last week with about two days of torrential rain across the main island of Luzon, claiming at least 92 lives and affecting more than 3.4 million people, according to the government.

Manila, a megacity of about 15 million people, endured its worst flooding since 2009, while farmers to the north said they had not experienced waters reaching such levels for decades.

The farming regions are a natural catch basin, with rivers streaming down from mountains to the north eventually ending in Manila Bay.

But many of the dams in the mountains were already close to overflowing before last week's deluge, while the natural drainage areas near the bay have been getting increasingly clogged with millions of people living around them.

With the waters not yet receding, tropical storm Kai-tak was approaching from the east on Monday and was expected to start dumping up to 3.5 centimetres of rain an hour in the evening, the state weather bureau said.

While not being as directly impacted, Manila was also expected to suffer more heavy rain as the storm compounded typical monsoon weather, it said.

Mopping up

On the outskirts of Manila, flood survivors were still struggling to clean up their homes and even just to get food, after losing most of their belongings last week.

"I hope to God this new storm doesn't happen," said 64-year-old grandmother Fe Bermejo as she queued alongside hundreds of other people for Red Cross relief goods in Valenzuela, one of the hardest hit coastal districts.

In the neighbouring district of Malabon, people were trickling back to clean up their mud-streaked homes amid warnings to be prepared for fresh evacuations.

"Many have returned to their homes to rebuild, but sadly they may have to leave again if there are more floods because of this new storm," said Roderick Tongol, head of Malabon's disaster response unit.

"We are on heightened alert, and we have placed all our rescue teams on standby."

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that of the more than 3.4 million people affected by the floods, one million were forced to flee their homes.

The government has admitted to being overwhelmed by the scale of the relief effort, with access to toilets at evacuation centres and getting relief goods to the homeless a major problem.

The Philippines is hammered by an average of 20 storms a year, many of them deadly.

But environment minister Raman Paje said much more intense rains, such as those experienced last week, should be considered the "new normal" as part of climate change.

-->

Disease alert as Philippines flood death toll jumps to 89

Emergency relief officials and doctors deployed to flood devastated communities in the Philippines Sunday to prevent outbreaks of disease as the death toll jumped to 85.

Physics,

12 August, 2012

The flooding that submerged 80 percent of Manila early in the week has largely subsided but more than 150 towns and cities around the capital remain under water, affecting more than three million people.

Amid the ongoing relief operation, the weather bureau warned of a low pressure area developing some 850 kilometres (528 miles) to the east in the Pacific Ocean that could turn into a storm and bring more rain.

Many provinces around Manila remained inundated as overflowing dams continued to release water, the national disaster coordinating agency said.

Relief workers were dealing with "clogged pipelines and trash everywhere. Sanitation has emerged as a key problem," Red Cross secretary general Gwendolyn Pang told AFP.

"We have deployed health officers in evacuation centres and in flood-hit communities with the likelihood of diseases erupting."

The health department said water purification tablets were being distributed, while mass immunisations were being carried out to prevent an outbreak of diseases such as flu.

Of particular concern is a possible outbreak of leptospirosis, caused by exposure to water contaminated by rat urine, which infected 3,300 people and claimed some 250 lives in the aftermath of similar flooding in 2009.

"Many may have escaped the floods, but many could still die from leptospirosis or other diseases," Ramos said.

For article GO HERE

As if that wasn't enough.....

-->

Philippine residents fear the Mt. Matutum volcano is awakening after 100 years

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs)has allayed fears of volcanic activity in Mt. Matutum

as claimed by residents.

 

  

Business World,

 August 13, 2012

Phivolcs chief Renato U. Solidum, Jr. said in a letter sent to Mayor Reynaldo S. Tamayo on Friday that the observations of smoke and fire coming out of the crater were non-volcanic in nature.

“Ocular inspections at the crater area and seismic records showed that there were no volcanic activities, specifically an imminent eruption, in Mt. Matutum,” Mr. Solidum said.

Rolly T. Visaya, Tupi information officer, told BusinessWorld that weeks prior to the Phivolcs letter, residents of Barangays Acmonan and Kablon in Tupi, and Maligo in Polomolok observed certain developments such as: the descent of wild animals from the mountains, as well as burnt vegetation.

The locals also claimed to have felt the ground shaking and heard unusual rumblings from the volcano, he added.

To confirm the observations, both Tupi and Polomolok towns sent their rescue teams to Mt. Matutum to get firsthand information through photographs and videos.

From the information acquired, Mr. Tamayo, who also chairs the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Tupi, then requested for Phivolcs’s investigation.

The absence of micro-earthquake activity in the seismic record of the agency’s volcano-seismic observatory at Mindanao State University in General Santos City meant that the phenomenon is not volcanic in origin, Mr. Solidum said.

On the reported sighting of wild animals descending to the lowlands, he said it could be due to scarcity of food or disturbances of their habitat, be it man-made, lighting and other phenomena.

Before Phivolcs’s response, there have been reports of several families from the adjoining town of Malungon in Sarangani province who have evacuated from their houses for safety, Mr. Visaya said.

Mt. Matutum stands 2,286 meters, the 14th highest peak in the Philippines, and has a base that covers the towns of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato and Malungon in Sarangani. The popular trekking destination’s last recorded eruption was in 1911, Mr. Visaya said citing Phivolcs records.

Mr. Solidum explained that a new volcanic vent, as dormant volcano reactivates will not dissipate overnight, but will become more vigorous over time.

He explained “that should the volcano end its dormancy and enter a period of magmatic activity, unmistakable signs of unrest will be manifested, such as small ash and gas explosions that can intensify through time, ground deformation, vegetation kill, unabated crater glow at the summit and increasingly perceptible earthquakes.”

Mr. Visaya said Phivolcs national office personnel are in town to further study the volcanic conditions.