Gloring, Ondoy, Sendong: Storms that brought some of PH’s worst floods

FLOOD composite image from AFP and Inquirer files

Even before storm Ondoy in 2009 and the southwest monsoon rains that submerged Metro Manila and some provinces in Luzon last week, flooding has already been a perennial disaster for the Philippines.

While floods recede a few days or so, it leaves behind damage that no one would ever forget – thousands of deaths, broken properties, and billions worth of economic losses.

Last week, habagat, or the southwest monsoon, was enhanced by a string of storms that brought heavy rainfall and triggered massive flooding in Luzon, especially Metro Manila, and even in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Based on data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the combined effects of Tropical Cyclones Crising, Dante and Emong, and the southwest monsoon already resulted in 31 deaths.

It said agricultural losses reached P1.6 billion, impacting thousands of farmers and fisherfolk, while infrastructure losses already exceeded P7.1 billion, with Central Luzon accounting for P3.7 billion.

As pointed out by city planner and landscape architect Paulo Alcazaren, it is high time for the government to revise land use plans to accommodate strategies for flood mitigation.

READ: Endless stream of storms draining PH GDP, home incomes

This cover retention lakes in subdivisions and large cisterns in malls “so that rainwater […] collected is stored first before being pumped into the city system,” he told INQUIRER.net.

Alcazaren, stressing some long-term solutions to the problem, said there is also a need to relocate informal settlers from waterway easements, and to look at the larger context of provinces and regions to mitigate the source of flood waters.

The government should also buy more land “to turn into small, medium and large city parks that should have more greenery than paved areas,” he said in an interview.

This, as flooding has always been a problem, especially in the Philippines, which experiences a yearly average of 20 tropical cyclones. Based on estimates, eight to nine of these make landfall, devastating the archipelago every year.

READ: Understanding ‘explosive intensification’: The case of Super Typhoon Karding

Here, INQUIRER.net looks back to some of the worst flooding since the 1970s, when Metro Manila and other provinces in Luzon experienced what is now considered as the “Great Luzon Flood.”

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan/INQUIRER.net

• 1972, Typhoon Gloring

From July to August, typhoon Gloring brought relentless rain for six straight weeks, causing widespread flooding that resulted in severe losses – 656 deaths and P2 billion worth of damage.

Back then, 90 percent of Metro Manila had been submerged to neck-deep immersion, prompting a lot of people to stay on their rooftops for several days while grappling with the lack of food and drinking water.

• 1991, Typhoon Uring

It was in November when Leyte was hit by Typhoon Uring, which brought heavy rainfall that caused severe flash floods, devastating most of the province, especially Ormoc City.

Close to 5,000 people were killed and left P1 billion worth of damage as waters rose to an average of three to five feet in only a few hours, and reached as high as seven feet at its peak.

• 1998, Gading, Iliang and Lolen

The string of tropical cyclones in September 1998 caused extensive flooding in Luzon, killing 481 people.Almost 1,000 barangays in 104 towns and 16 provinces have been submerged, with an estimated 18,000 of rice lands severely damaged.

• 2006, Reming

Bicol Region was hit by severe mudslides and landslides in November as Typhoon Reming triggered lahar and rocks from Mayon Volcano to slide down, smashing villages and leaving communities destroyed and deserted a few days later.

READ: Philippines’ 10 deadliest storms

The disaster killed over 700 people and left damage worth P5 billion.

• 2008, Frank

Widespread flooding wreaked havoc in the Visayas, and even Luzon, killing almost 1,000 people, with losses reaching as high as P13.32 billion.

The flooding, which was caused by Typhoon Frank, was so intense that 80 percent of Iloilo City have been submerged.

• 2009, Ondoy

Metro Manila and other provinces in Luzon were hit by one of the worst floodings in the region in decades, ending the lives of close to 500 people and leaving damage worth P11.1 billion.

This, as Tropical Storm Ondoy triggered heavy rainfall with a volume of 341 mm, or a month’s worth of rain in just six hours.

• 2011, Sendong

Tropical Storm Sendong brought heavy rainfall in Mindanao in December after triggering rivers to overflow a few days before Christmas.

The massive flooding left 1,268 people dead and P12 billion worth of damage, with assessments pointing out that the water level reached as high as nine to 10 meters.

• 2012, Southwest Monsoon

The eight-day period of torrential rain in Metro Manila was triggered by the southwest monsoon, killing 109 people and leaving damage worth P3 billion.

• August 2013, Maring and Southwest Monsoon

Intensified by Tropical Storm Maring, the rainfall brought by the southwest monsoon was higher than Ondoy’s, reaching 600 mm in 24 hours.

The flooding left 27 individuals dead and P689 million worth of damage.

• November 2013, Yolanda

The wind brought by the strong typhoon was so intense that it caused a storm wave that submerged some of the Visayas, with water level rising to about two meters high.

READ: PH’s typhoon alley and the trail of destruction it brings

With its intensity, Yolanda affected 14 million individuals in 44 provinces, killed 6,340 and left 1,800 missing. Damage was at P95.4 billion.

• 2020, Ulysses

Typhoon Ulysses brought the worst flooding in decades in Cagayan Valley, directly affecting millions of people over a month before Christmas.

It killed 101 people and left damage worth P20 billion.

• 2024, Kristine and Leon

Last year, storms Kristine and Leon wrecked the Bicol Region and Calabarzon, and the province of Batanes, leaving damage at P17.60 billion and 160 people dead.

For Alcazaren, to mitigate the effects of these floods in the short-term, drains should be cleaned year-round.

He also suggested the planting of more trees in metros, along streets and vacant lots, so that there is something to absorb the rainfall.

Buildings, he said, should have rainwater storage, while new parking areas should be required to use open hole paving.

He encouraged, as well, the building of detention cisterns anywhere possible, like the one in Bonifacio Global City.