‘Pedring’ shuts down Metro Manila

SAVING THE PIG Residents carry a pig through a street flooded by Typhoon “Pedring” in suburban San Mateo, eastern Manila on Tuesday. Manila residents waded through waist-deep floodwaters, dodging branches and flying debris as the powerful typhoon sent surging waves as tall as palm trees crashing over seawalls and submerging entire neighborhoods. AP PHOTO

Government and business operations on Tuesday came to a standstill in Metro Manila as howling winds and rains of Typhoon “Pedring” unleashed flash floods, kept millions of people indoors and forced  patients in one hospital to evacuate.

The latest typhoon to hit the country did not even spare one of Manila’s five-star hotels, flooding the restaurant and basement of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza and breaking hotel windows.

Cars parked outside the hotel drifted in the floodwaters as helpless attendants watched. All guests were evacuated safely to nearby hotels.

Roxas Boulevard seemed like an extension of the bay as Pedring (international name: Nesat) submerged it in knee-deep water. The strong waves and the high tide destroyed street lamps and washed out embedded stone tile floorings on the sidewalks.

Some areas along Manila Bay suffered their worst flooding in decades.

Some 20,000 people fled their homes in Marikina City and Manila as Pedring sideswiped the metropolis of 12 million residents with winds of 120 kilometers per hour, stirring memories of Tropical Storm “Ondoy,” which ravaged parts of the capital two years ago and left nearly 500 dead.

At least five people were killed in Metro Manila in the wake of Pedring.

In Malabon City, two rivers overflowed and a dike was breached, leaving the city  almost completely underwater. “It was like a tsunami was here. This is the first time it happened here,” said Bong Padua, the city’s chief public information officer.

Metro residents waded through waist-deep floodwaters and dodged flying debris, including metal roofs, as Pedring kicked up waves that crashed over seawalls  with a splash taller than coconut trees.

At the height of Pedring’s onslaught, transportation authorities halted the operations of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) trains.

There was no stock, bond or currency trading due to a lack  of clearing facilities, with government offices and the central bank closed.

Classes from kindergarten up to college in both public and private schools in Metro Manila were suspended.

Patients evacuated

Owing to the “surge” of floodwaters from Manila Bay, some 50 patients of Ospital ng Maynila were evacuated to the upper floors. The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) had to bring in a generator to power the hospital’s medical equipment.

Janet del Mundo-Tan, director of Ospital ng Maynila,  told the Philippine Daily Inquirer it was the first time that the hospital staff had to move patients to the upper floors because of a typhoon.

“We had to salvage our machines and move everything as a contingency measure,” Tan said. “We were taken by surprise by the large waves on Manila Bay.”

Destructive and frightening

The Office of Civil Defense chief for Metro Manila, Director Susan Cruz, described Pedring as “very destructive.”

“While during Ondoy it was more or less the eastern part of Metro Manila [that was hit], now it’s like all over,” Cruz said.

“It’s also very destructive and as much as we would like to really go around, the situation is frightening,” she added.

Many private offices around Metro Manila, including the Makati business district, either did not open or sent home their employees early.

Pounding rains obscured the view of anyone on the streets as soldiers and police scrambled to evacuate thousands of people in low-lying places, where rivers and the sea spilled into shanties, swanky hotels and even the US Embassy compound.

“It’s flooded everywhere. We don’t have a place to go for shelter,” said Ray Gonzales, one of the thousands of motorists stranded by the floodwaters.

The massive flooding came exactly a day after residents  in Quezon City and Marikina City held commemorations for the nearly 500 people killed in 2009 by Ondoy, which dumped a month’s rainfall on Metro Manila in just 12 hours.

Some residents acted more quickly this time to evacuate homes as waters rose, including in Marikina City, where 2,000 people escaped the swelling river by flocking to an elementary school, carrying pets, TV sets, bags of clothes and bottled water.

“We can replace things, but not people’s lives,” said janitor Banny Domanais, arriving at the school with his wife and three young daughters.

Pedring dumped up to an inch of rain per hour on areas in  its path, half that of Ondoy, said government forecaster Samuel Duran.

Along Manila’s historic baywalk, cars and buses were stuck and residents struggled through floodwaters as waves washed over the seawall, turning a six-lane boulevard into a huge brown river.

In the financial district of Makati City, a billboard fell on two cars and a bus, injuring two motorists.

Benito Ramos, a retired military officer who heads the Office of Civil Defense, said authorities were still assessing the damage as the typhoon continued to pummel other areas of the country.

He said it was heartwarming to see Filipinos remaining calm amid the unfolding crisis.

“We see people on the roofs of their houses drinking gin and smiling and waving,” Ramos said. “Such resiliency helps them get by in stressful times.”

Safety reasons

Seasonal monsoon rains ahead of the typhoon plus winds pushing seawater inland had worsened the situation, Duran said.  “Land is saturated with rain so the next rain became run-off and was already floodwater,” he said.

Officials said the operations of LRT and MRT were suspended because the strong winds and fluctuating electricity jeopardized the safety of passengers.

LRT operations were halted at around 9 a.m., while MRT trips were stopped at noon.

“For safety reasons, (trains) will stop operations until further notice,” said Hernando Cabrera, the LRT spokesperson. “We also want to avoid passengers being stranded in between stations during train stoppages, which is dangerous under these circumstances.”

LRT Line 1, which runs from Baclaran in Parañaque City to Roosevelt, Quezon City, is the most used train line in Metro Manila, serving over half a million passengers on regular weekdays.  LRT Line 2 carries about 250,000 passengers daily.

The MRT runs over capacity every day with about 500,000 passengers.

Makati accident

Strong waves coupled with the high tide submerged a long stretch of Manila’s Roxas Boulevard from the corner of President Quirino to UN Avenue.

The Manila Police District director, Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla, denied reports that a portion of  the seawall along the  boulevard had collapsed. He attributed the flooding to the high tide and the waves.

Fierce winds tore down a steel structure near the railroad crossing along Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City. The steel frame fell on three vehicles—a passenger bus, a sedan and an SUV.

The sedan’s driver and passenger were injured but were declared out of danger in a hospital. Police identified them as Leandro Torres and his wife Lorenza Garcia, both employees of the Government Service Insurance System.

Marikina evacuation

In Marikina City,  Mayor Del De Guzman ordered 15, 000 residents living near Marikina River to take shelter in 17 public elementary schools after the river breached its 18-meter critical level.

By 6 p.m., the city government had recorded around 13,000 people in the evacuation centers.

As of 11 a.m., at least 250 families took shelter in  covered courts and elementary schools in Barangay (village) Bagong Silangan, Quezon City. Barangay Silangan is a flood-prone area.

In Manila, more than 5,000 people were evacuated from Isla Puting Bato, Parola and Baseco compound in Tondo,  said Manila City Administrator Jesus Mari Marzan.

Some evacuees were initially brought to Del Pan Sports Complex but were later transferred to Pedro Guevarra Elementary School after the sports complex’s roof was blown off by strong winds. With reports from Jeannette I. Andrade, Paolo G. Montecillo, Miko Morelos, Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Dona Pazzibugan,  Julie M. Aurelio,  Niña Calleja, Penelope P. Endozo and AP