TYPHOON “LANDO” (international name: Koppu) dumped 775.4 millimeters on Monday, the amount of rain that usually falls in a month, said Larry Esperanza of the weather bureau in Baguio City.
The summer capital receives the highest rainfall in the country, according to official records and it is the volume of water dumped by a storm which spells tragedy.
When Typhoon “Pepeng” swept through Benguet province on Oct. 9, 2009 and killed 77 people in a community called Little Kibungan in the capital La Trinidad, the typhoon unleashed 658 mm of rainfall, according to a comparative chart provided by the weather bureau. Most of the fatalities were sleeping when mud and rocks engulfed their homes.
Lando’s rage on Monday killed six members of families in La Trinidad who were also asleep.
Since October 1998, the “greatest daily rainfall” on record was 994.6 mm. Kimberlie Quitasol in La Trinidad, Benguet