Friday, August 17, 2007

We Prayed for Rain

We prayed for rain.

A few weeks ago, scenes of dry and arid land were shown on the TV. Farmers and agriculture experts were interviewed and they expressed fears of a long drought. What could be of our food supply then? We were told to brace for the worst.

We were also shown scenes of the Angat Dam and the declining water level. They say that water rationing for the metro was inevitable. Two typhoons were needed to bring the water level back to normal. We were not prepared for a drought.

Cebu enjoyed the same cloudy day with slight rain on the evening. An officemate even expressed delight that they played tennis all afternoon on a holiday. I was not exactly minding the weather but wished that the clouds would move up to Luzon to aid in the precipitation.

Then came “Chedeng”, “Dodong” and now “Egay”. The water level at Angat Dam returned to normal level alright. There is no more need for water rationing, they say, at least for a few months. These typhoons brought plenty of rainwater, plenty that it flooded the rice fields and riversides, destroyed dikes, houses and killing some people. Damage was estimated to be around P800M.

When shall we ever be prepared for disasters like these? Our metro still experiences flooded streets because of garbage, clogged drainage, etc… We were afraid of drought, and we prayed for rain. But we were not ready of too much of the downpour. And here we are, riding whatever transport available to keep us afloat.




picture from internet

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh yes, same old problems. i personally feel a little tired of watching about it on tv, kasi halos pareho lang ng footage many years ago. and same explanations from the people in-charge. hmp.

Tinunuy said...

Tayo rin kasi ang may kagagawan ng pagbaha.

Lazarus said...

cess, yep same old explanations. and those poor folks at the riverbanks are again to be blamed.

cm, we need a sewerage system. something like those of the big cities.

Swipe said...

I suppose the government will need to fix itself before the sewers get fixed.

dodong flores 도동 플로오리스 said...

I also have my own share of experience too, during the flash floods. Unfortunately, the other typhoon was my name sake :(

Lazarus said...

swipe, fixing the government will take forever.

dodongflores, can I call u gaw na lang? he he. namaryente ra ko ha.