‘It happened when they were sleeping’

Office of Civil Defense Administrator Benito Ramos described it as “an extraordinary situation.”

“In my 60 years, this is the first time such a strong storm hit those places,” he said on Saturday in a briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, referring to Tropical Storm “Sendong,” which dumped unprecedented rain on the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao.

Storms coming from the Pacific usually go to the northeastern regions, such as the typhoon-hardened Bicol and Cagayan Valley, or a little southward to the provinces of Cebu or Leyte, Ramos said.

Almost never are weather disturbances known to move westward, almost in a horizontal fashion, going to the direction of Palawan province, he said.

As a result, Ramos said, many residents dismissed the Storm Signal No. 2 warnings issued “three days in advance” of Sendong’s arrival by the weather bureau and the local disaster agencies.

“It happened at 2:30 a.m. when they were all sleeping,” he said.

At Saturday’s interagency conference presided over by President Aquino, the newly appointed Armed Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Jessie Dellosa announced a death toll that differed from the official figure of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), of which Ramos is also executive director.

“The disparity is because we cannot count bodies that have not been identified,” Ramos said.

181 mm

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration senior weather specialist Robert Quinto said the rainfall in Cagayan de Oro peaked at 181 millimeters over a 24 hour-period. Ramos said the typical rainfall in the city reached only 15-20 mm per hour.

“This reminds me of [Tropical Storm] ‘Ondoy,’” Ramos said, referring to the severest storm that hit eastern Metro Manila and adjacent Rizal province in September 2009 that left more than 400 dead and dumped more than 600 mm of rain.

He noted that there had not been as strong a storm as Ondoy in Marikina City in 40 years, similar to what happened in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

“Sendong” made landfall on Friday at about 4 p.m., and rain poured steadily throughout the day. Floodwaters from Bukidnon spilled over to Cagayan de Oro while those from Lanao del Sur flowed to Iligan, Ramos said.

He said many factors led to the tragic outcome, not least of which was the complacency of the residents who did not anticipate the severity of the storm, as well as the manmade destruction of natural forest covers.

Mining, logging and farming activities in the area are to blame, he said, as denuded forests left scant protection against the flow of floodwaters.

“Pineapples planted in the fields, instead of trees” cannot provide cover, he said.

Global warming

Ramos said another anomaly was the timing of Sendong.

“In December, we don’t usually see storms like this,” he said. Every year, 20 storms visit the Philippines.

Ramos attributed the changing weather patterns to global warming. He said there might be a need to revisit the storm warning system in order to account for the phenomenon.