Brace for more

The flashfloods we experienced in Metro Manila over the weekend due to typhoon “Karen” have again sent residents in low-lying areas scampering to higher grounds. Many parts of Metro Manila went under six feet of floodwaters after heavy rains lashed the national capital region overnight. Although “Karen” was moving away from the Philippines and going toward Japan, our weather forecasters explained that it was adding to the wild weather phenomena.

The state weather bureau has downgraded its Rainfall Warning Signal in Metro Manila from red to yellow but still advised the public to closely monitor the weather condition. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration warned that the country’s bad weather could continue with more heavy downpours expected until Tuesday.

The people in flood-prone areas like those in the cities of Manila, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Marikina, and San Juan did not wait for any government evacuation alert. They left their homes early on and avoided being trapped again by floodwaters. On their own, residents vacated their houses without waiting for the floodwaters to go up any higher.

Residents near the Marikina River were alerted early Saturday as the river’s water level rose to 15.2 meters at around 8 a.m. The Marikina City public information office posted on its Twitter account the alert/warning, one of its means to give a heads up to Marikina folk.

Under the city’s system, Alarm Level 1, which calls for “warning,” is raised if the water level is between 15 and 16 meters. Alarm Level 2 (preparation) is raised when the water level goes above 16 to 17 meters. Alarm Level 3 (voluntary evacuation) is raised when the water level goes beyond 17 meters. The highest – Alarm Level 4 – is raised when the water level goes beyond 18 meters and will entail forced evacuation.

The Marikina River runs through the areas of Malanday, Tumana and Nangka. During my school vacation days, I used to swim and collect clams from the Marikina riverbanks during weekends I spent with my relatives. It was just three roads behind my paternal grandmother’s house in Fairlane Subdivision in Concepcion, Marikina.

I was in my first year in college in 1978 when I had my usual weekend stay in Marikina. It was raining heavily the whole night. The next thing I knew was my grandma was shaking me up from deep slumber before dawn. When I got down from the bed, my feet stepped into very cold water on the floor. To my horror, my grandma’s bungalow/duplex was already flooded with the water inside the house reaching my ankle.

My grandma and aunt and I tried to save what we could and brought the appliances on top of chairs. We gave up trying though as the floodwaters inside the house kept getting higher. We got out of the house and tried to swim to a higher place but it was already too late. The downstream current was just too strong and the three of us nearly got drowned. Thanks to God’s help, we got hold of a branch of a guava tree in my grandma’s front yard and hang on to it.

My uncle, who lived in the other duplex, rescued us and helped us clamber to the rooftop. Wet and cold, we stayed on the roof with my uncle’s wife and their three toddlers, a pregnant hog and a dog. It was only at around noontime when a rescue team on a rubber boat came to help us.

It is noteworthy that local disaster risk reduction authorities have become more proactive now. The people of Marikina are also fortunate that the private sector is involved in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation efforts for their flood-prone city.

Premier property developer Ortigas & Co. is reportedly spending P300 million for a 1.5-kilometer river protection wall around its Circulo Verde residential project that is designed to also help increase the carrying capacity of the Marikina River. The completion of the river protection wall is set in June 2013.

Ortigas & Co. is the developer behind some of Metro Manila’s long-standing premier addresses like Valle Verde, Greenmeadows, and Greenhills subdivisions, as well as shopping destinations like the Greenhills Shopping Center and Tiendesitas.

Circulo Verde is actually a private 12-hectare residential development located at the heart of Quezon City. The project is situated along the Marikina River across the Manggahan floodgate. According to Ortigas & Co. senior vice president and general manager for real estate Joey F. Santos, it will also have a river protection wall.

Engineering design firm DCCD Engineering, which was commissioned by Ortigas & Co. to conduct a flood and hydraulics study for the Circulo Verde project, confirmed that Marikina River’s carrying capacity had greatly diminished.

Santos explained that the project will increase the average width of the Marikina River around Circulo Verde by 45 percent from 46.81 meters to 68 meters. More importantly, he said the Marikina River will also consequently be deepened by 20 meters, more than doubling its current carrying capacity.

In all, the project will involve the dredging of 25,000 cubic meters of silt, equivalent to 1,500 truckloads, Santos added.

Once the project is completed, he pointed out the river wall will permanently stop erosion at the Marikina riverbanks around the area of the property and downstream areas in Metro Manila.

Santos averred the soundness of the river wall was further supported by a third-party study by Dr. Guillermo Tabios of the University of the Philippines-National Hydraulics Research Center. These experts believe the Marikina River wall, once erected, can even withstand 50- and 100-year floods like we had during typhoon “Ondoy” in September 2009.

Storms and flooding from torrential rains affected more than two million people in August alone, and scores of people in Metro Manila and other parts of the country were killed where these typhoons passed us this year. Our country experiences an annual average of 20 major storms or typhoons. We have to brace for more, as “Karen” is just the 11th typhoon this year.