Life after Megi (a.k.a. Juan in the Philippines)

Latest casualty count: 15

Juan pummeled northern Luzon about lunchtime last Monday, and our countrymen up there were prepared for the worst since forecast was signal no. 4 before it hit--securing their roofs, seeking refuge in public buildings like schools and gymnasiums, saving rice crops already ripe for the harvest, etc.  Airlines canceled flights; ferry services stayed moored and passengers got stranded for safety's sake.  Up there, classes were, of course, suspended but not in Metro Manila where students in all levels trooped to their schools in the morning only to be told to go home in the early afternoon (DepEd as usual got a lot of flak; they're now in Twitter for announcements!).

Hard-hit towns of Isabela: Maconacon, Palanan & Divilacan.

We got to know that the NDCC (National Disaster Coordinating Council) has morphed to the NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council); PNoy skipped its preparedness meeting since he had already been briefed by the member agencies of their individual plans , and the presidential communications group explained, he had other priority agenda to attend to.  On Sunday, we saw the emergency facilities spread out on the parade grounds of Camp Aguinaldo all ready for deployment.

We hope it's not the ratings war that propels the TV networks to deploy their own support trucks crammed with bags of rice, noodles and tin goods to last a couple days plus clothes at the height of the Megi/Juan assault ("kasagsagan ng bagyo" is the more emotive expression for it).  We got to hear up-to-the-second 'super' rains and winds hitting the northern Luzon citizenry; there was no brown-out in our area in MManila so the TV was on all the time.

It wasn't Zero Casualty as PNoy (and the country) hoped for.  There was no Typhoon PNoy to sweep away PAGASA heads after Megi/Juan has moved out of the Philippine 'area of responsibility' for incorrect forecasting. GMA7's tweeters gave the meteorological agency high praises for better forecast this time around (and the Pagasa updaters including an undersecretary talked street language except that they and the listeners still grappled with the long translation of northnorthwest--'hilaga at hilagang kanluran'.

We liked the Manila Bulletin's front page visual treatments of Megi/Juan's assault: the 19 October cover neatly boxed up the country's super typhoon history; the 20 October issue summed up in picture and boxed numbers the damage to life and property; and today's issue introduced us to two Isabela towns--Maconacon and Divilacan--unknown to most Pinoys until they stood on the way of Super Juan.

Other Asian newspapers front-paged flooding in China and Thailand. But we think these were due to other weather disturbances not directly attributable to this super typhoon.

This one does not need NDRRMC attention.

The Macau Daily Times pictorial report about Megi in the Philippines was a toppled Shell gas station roofing somewhere in Luzon.

We suppose Megi/Juan did not stop Manny Pacquiao training for his pound-for-pound encounter with the much taller Margarito in Texas next month. Everybody is wondering if he gets paid by Filipino taxpayers as Sarangani congressman even he spends all his time in the gym.

Nobody has won the P237-million jackpot of the Super Lotto yet (it's now P251-M). Despite Juan, the lines of fortune-seekers were very long.

Our informer from our dear hometown San Narciso in Zambales reported that there was flooding in barangay Alusiis, which is near the big Sto Tomas river, and we retorted, isn't that expected since the lahar deposits had raised the river bed above the town already?  It was not in the magnitude of the flooding in 2007 though when the dikes broke, and several barangays got submerged.