No 'instant noodle'

Umbrella, check. Jacket, check. In this monsoon season, these items are must-haves for anyone leaving the house. Toss in rubber footwear, a bottle of alcohol, perhaps a change of clothes. And how about a fishing bib?

That’s waterproof overall, used – as the name implies – for fishing. But it could be useful in floods several feet deep.

A bib, with heavy-duty waterproof boots attached, was a hit in our newsroom the other day. It was worn to the office by one of our employees, who said it is made in China but was sent to her from Germany.

The material, similar to those used for flak vests, is heavy and can be too warm when worn over regular clothing, including leggings. The boots can be cumbersome for walking and catching a ride on the LRT.

The employee told us people stared at her bib – an unfamiliar sight in this country – during her commute through flooded streets. But unlike many employees who arrived in the office like wet rats for the second straight day, she was dry and didn’t have to watch out for symptoms of leptospirosis or skin disease from contact with filthy water.

There are rubber boots, but even the tallest pairs are useless in floods several feet deep. So now several people in the newsroom are considering investing in a fishing bib. Prices for such waterproof garments range from $200 to about $400 without the boots. That amount is still lower than the cost of cleaning and repairing a car that has been damaged by floods. Or the cost of medical treatment for certain water-borne diseases.

Wearing a bib can also ease worries about running into creatures that are flushed out by rains and floods, including poisonous toads, centipedes, sewer rats, and even snakes and slugs. At the Philippine General Hospital, a guard caught catfish in the flood.

It’s a sign of the times that we are seriously looking at the fishing industry for more equipment to survive cataclysmic flooding. Will an amphibious fishing vehicle, for example, be useful in the flooded streets of Metro Manila? In floods two to four feet deep, it certainly works better than a delivery truck.

After Metro Manila was paralyzed by typhoon “Ondoy” in September 2009, our office considered buying rubber boats similar to those used for rescue operations by the police. The idea is still being kicked around.

In certain towns in Central Luzon, residents already keep small canoes at home, for use during floods. I’m not sure if the multibillion-peso megadike has been useful, but the areas around it sure looked submerged during Ondoy and subsequent strong typhoons.

Neither does the megadike for the Camanava area look like it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. But then the flood control project, whose original cost of P3.2 billion has ballooned to P5.9 billion, is only 99 percent finished, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways. After 100 percent completion, maybe we’ll see positive results.

President Aquino has lowered public expectations for flood control, saying an effective system will take years to complete.

Even without his pronouncement, people are already resigned to the idea that flooding in Metro Manila is going to get worse in the coming years.

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At least rainfall tracking seems to have improved enough for weather forecasters to introduce color-coding in their rain and flood alerts.

Yellow is the lowest advisory for likely flooding from heavy rain. Yesterday the colors were changed, with orange instead of green the next alert level, and red the worst.

I was caught in a yellow alert for “intensive rain” the other day. I heard it on my car radio at close to 2 p.m., when the intensive rain was already pouring and I was stuck in a massive traffic jam as floodwaters rose again.

Because the morning had started with much improved weather, people returned to work in areas where flooding had subsided. But the weather turned horrid again at around the same time that the yellow alert was issued.

I was told that the alert was not quite a forecast but merely a report of heavy rainfall detected by the weather bureau. We can, of course, deduce this ourselves simply by looking out the window, or if we happen to be caught in the rain.

The forecasting part in the new system is the duration of the intensive rain – in the case of the yellow alert, about two hours, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

In the evening, PAGASA raised its alert to red over eastern and northern Metro Manila – areas already among the worst hit by the massive flooding.

I’m not sure if the system failed, or if no one was paying attention to alerts from PAGASA, but Metro Manila looked completely unprepared for the monsoon-induced torrential rains, which started pouring Sunday night.

Some people observed that the amount of rainfall dumped by the weather disturbance, which doesn’t even have a name like typhoons, has been heavier than Ondoy’s, although the floodwaters in 2009 rose with unusual and deadly speed.

A resident in the lakeshore area of Muntinlupa said her home was flooded up to the second floor for the first time – which didn’t happen during Ondoy. Their community was evacuated Monday night.

We’ve had several dreadful experiences with monsoon rains in the past – they can be as destructive as super typhoons – so priority should have been given to improving the capability of the weather bureau to predict the amount of rainfall.

The acquisition of more Doppler radars has helped, but we’re still waiting for something like what we see in several countries: rainfall forecasts for the next 24 hours, plus weekly and monthly forecasts.

We don’t need to be told that there’s no “instant noodle” solution to the problem. Seeing what’s happening in Camanava, Marikina and the communities around Laguna de Bay, it’s clear that things are going to get worse, and we can’t be sure it will get better afterwards.

All we can do is adapt to our situation. Buy a fishing bib. Or at least rubber boots.