There were two things I was supposed to write about today — how I feel about Vice President Binay’s “request” for an official residence and the electoral protest filed by Senator MAR Roxas. Those were my thoughts before I went to bed before nine o’clock last night, feeling a bit busted after working all day. But, as it turned out, typhoon Basyang got in the way. When I went to bed last night, the wind was howling but there were no heavy rains. Speedy was wide awake monitoring news breaks to find out if classes would be suspended at the girls’ school. Classes in the elementary and high school levels are automatically suspended with a typhoon signal #2 declaration, but, as of last night, Metro Manila was under signal #1 so it looked like classes in the college level would go on.
Sometime after 10 o’clock, I fell asleep. I shifted a bit when I felt the power go out after midnight. The aircon went off but Speedy opened the windows, the night air was cool and I slept through the typhoon and the blackout.
When I woke up after 8 a.m. today, the sky was still overcast but the winds have stopped. The house helper was sweeping leaves off the living room floor. The terracotta wind chimes hanging on the second floor veranda was on the floor — in smithereens. Later, Speedy would tell me what a disaster it was in the garden.
It is 9.16 p.m. as I write this post. It wasn’t a brown out that we experienced. It was a blackout — massive, huge, serious, terrible. Almost the entire island of Luzon (more than a third of this country) was without power. Worse, because water utilities are also power dependent, there was no water in many areas — including ours. Mobile phone signal was erratic. There were reports over the radio that many internet services were slow, if not totally down.
Insert on July 15, 2010 @1.44 p.m. Found the link to this video on Twitter. Embedding it just to visualize the magnitude of the typhoon.
End of insert.
I thought about my girls. My iPhone’s battery was totally drained and I couldn’t call them. Speedy uses Sun cellular service and it was down (typhoon means no “sun” — get it?). Anyway, I had experienced power outage in the condo, I knew that the elevator would be operational and they would, at least, have water in the unit. Speedy was going to see them so I stopped worrying. At least, Speedy would we able to see the condition they were in. He did. He took them out to lunch (with two of the girls’ friends in tow) as it turned out that classes in the college level were suspended.
There was nothing much to do all day. I couldn’t entertain myself by cooking and baking because our stored water was running low and, according to radio reports, complete power restoration could take another three days. I read a book, kept the radio on and cursed every few minutes. But I didn’t do what I usually did — barrage Merlaco with calls. This wasn’t a Meralco issue. According to the statistics of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), typhoon Basyang left 18 people dead, slashed across Luzon from east to west, cutting power transmission lines. Metro trains couldn’t operate leaving commuters stranded. Government offices — including the Senate and, later, the House of Representatives, had to close because of the power outage.
By the time Speedy got home late in the afternoon, I was already entertaining thoughts of getting a room at a hotel where there would be power, water and internet connection. I still have to work, typhoon or no typhoon — that’s life’s reality. And we would have left tomorrow at midday if power were not restored. But, miraculously, power went on a little before 9 p.m.
It is 9.24 as I get to this part of the post and, about fifty meters away, in a shitty carinderia outside the subdivision, someone is on a karaoke mic and singing off-key. I would have been thankful for the blackout as it saved me from the painful experience of hearing the ugly singing but the ugly singing is more bearable than not being able to go online.
So, anyway, I mentioned two things I was supposed to write about today. But this is already a long entry. I’ll write about them tomorrow. For sure. There is something else that is more relevant right now.
The Department of Education has announced that classes will resume tomorrow. With power still out in more than 50% of the areas affected by the typhoon, including Metro Manila, I thought that DepEd officials must be joking. The biggest mass transport system, the LRT and MRT, are out of commission because neither have generators to fall back on when there is a power outage. Traffic lights aren’t working — Speedy was out the whole day, remember, and he saw that there were intersections where no traffic cops nor aids were guiding pedestrians and drivers. And classes will resume tomorrow — including classes in the elementary level.
Whoa. So, how will students get to school? Are DepEd officials so clueless that they think every family has a car and all students are driven to and from school everyday. Gee, the biggest part of the student population consists of commuters.
And what about the seven- eight-year-old public school kids who walk to school? With traffic lights not working in all intersections, and with the shortage of traffic cops and aids, should they just close their eyes, cross the streets and hope they don’t get hit by speeding jeepneys and buses?
Wouldn’t it have been more prudent — and more intelligent — for the DepEd to get reports from the superintendents of various areas affected and ASK their recommendations as to whether or not it is safe — and advisable — for classes to resume in their respective areas tomorrow?
I share your sentiments about the resumption of classes. What’s to lose in a day can be taken up in another day. Rather than having the children risk their lives or even the discomfort they would suffer, it would be more prudent to call off classes. Worse, is their practice of sticking to their decision of having classes only to reverse it when everybody is already in school.
I wish I knew how they come up with decisions. Tarot cards? Magic 8 ball?
How? The same way PAGASA makes its forecasts: Dumudungaw sa labas ng bintana ng opisina nila.
I just inserted a video in the entry above. You think it was taken by a PAG-ASA employee?
Just this year ex-president Arroyo (3/17/10) acquired 10 new Doppler radars during the 28th anniversary of DOST. This was due to the deadly effect of Ondoy and Pepeng which PAGASA blamed entirely on not having the Doppler.
So each of those 10 Doppler radar did not work??? And it cost P100 million each.
It really stinks!
PAGASA should change its name, please enlighten us.
PAGASA with 10 new Doppler radars costing P1 billion failed.
You think it is funny. It really sucks. Big time.
It is like we bought the top of the line sports car and does not know how to drive it. So nobody is competent to run things anymore at PAnGASAr?
I completely agree with you, Dodong, no competent driver to drive the car.And why?These are scientists and yet they supposedly received only P20thou/month?I couldn’t blame Mr. Nathaniel Cruz (successor of the late Mr. Punongbayan) for opting to migrate abroad.
A P20k/mo salary to a P100 million top of the line equipment. There is no person will last in that position.
According to news reports, only one new Doppler is actually operational. The rest will be within the next so many years.
But then, it isn’t just a question of equipment but also of qualified people to operate the equipment.
I heard that Nathaniel Cruz, the former PAG-ASA guy who appeared to know what he was talking about, got pirated by Singapore.
Friends,
May doppler radar nga, pero ang problema wala namang kuryente. Checking weather.com would have sufficed pero wala ring kuryente at internet.
IMO, what we really need is to weather-proof (and npa-proof na rin) our electric grid.
This stuff is supposed to be fail-safe. There is always UPS (uninterruptible power supply). It is like an alarm, it operates even if there is blackout.
Also, the other part of the equation is we relied too much on the government to provide us the warning which should not be the case. Major news stations in the US have their own doppler radar that provide early warning with live update in case of major storm.
I’m just curious d0d0ng -
Have we bought these doppler radar or are they Japan donations?
(I do hope your answer will not be “it’s irrelevant”).
According to Alcui Papa of PDI dated 6/22/10, “seven of the radars are funded by the Philippine government while three are being funded by the Japanese government.”
Thanks for the info. At least it will not look that it is 100% funded by GMA regime which at first was my impression after I’ve read your previous comment. Bakit nga ba hindi sabihin agad…
Baka may humirit pa dyan na sasabihin -”No, equipment is 100% funded by Japan”.
And so it seems favorable if it is funded by foreign country. That is actually a common misconception. All foreign donors like US and Japan keep tracks of their balance sheets. They knew how much they spent and for what purpose especially Japan who is heavily dependent on outside resources. As they say, there is always a price to something.
We share the same story, though the fact that my new born daughter was around made things a little more complicated. I can’t afford to get a hotel room for my family so the plan of sending them to my in-laws in case power is restored there much earlier was the best option if it would really take 2-3 days before the power would be restored.
Now I’m just glad that I’m able to write this comment within 24 hours when the blackout occurred.
Basyang just once more proved how vulnerable we are now than before. Perhaps it’s time to put those power lines underground eh?
I wish. But you think those money-crazy businessmen will make an investment like that?
FYI, your blog isn’t loading.
My son woke us up around 2am, with these words, “Dad, my bed’s getting wet from the rain!” Only to find out that the strong winds were pushing the rain water thru the window. … I was kept awake for 2 hours after that, the winds were kinda reminiscent of Millenyo and the continuous rain of Ondoy of course. All I can think of was how my Dad was doing at Marikina … Nothing untoward happened, so I guess expecting the worst kinda made the brownout (or blackout, as you pointed out) tolerable.
… But yes, life goes on … in fact I went to work after lunch and stayed in the office until around 10pm. … Asking for the moon ba that PAG-ASA gets their much-needed equipment so that they can give an accurate weather forecast? I’m hitting my mid-40′s and the PAG-ASA that I knew when I was in school is the same PAG-ASA that my kids are also experiencing!
I envy you Ms. Connie for sleeping through the onslaught of Basyang!
It caught me by surprise since that night I was in marathon mode watching DVD’s of “How I met your mother” so I was not up to date with the news.Then the winds started howling, raining cats and dogs and our sliding doors and windows started shaking! I was terrified– it was like a scene from the Poltergeist! Thank God, Lola Basyang was fast or it could have been worst.
The blackout was what irked me most.After our generator conked out yesterday I was ready to throw out everything in our freezer today but luckily power was restored early this morning (June 16, Friday, 3am)
sorry I mean July 16
As with Ondoy, who knew that Basyang would be anything extraordinary? There weren’t any warnings that it would be especially dangerous. I thought it was just another typhoon — after all, it is typhoon season, right? Imagine my surprise when I woke up the following morning.
ms. connie, i can’t wait na on your take on the vp’s request for official residence and mar roxas’ election protest…….this would really be interesting! please…. post it na
thanks!
Patience, patience… Brownouts are still around.
Year after year after year, people–media, MERALCO, PAGASA, the public in general–act as if these disasters are always new and unexpected.
Hello?!? We live in a tropical country with a monsoon season! What irks me the most is how these institutions, who are supposed to be experts, are always caught unawares.
Japan and Taiwan experience the same storms/natural phenomena that we do, and yet they don;t suffer as badly. Upgrading infrastructure and utilities, and bureaucratic coordination should be the job of the government–whereas vigilance and preparedness are ours.
Filipinos like to dramatize, ano? Like… surviving is almost a miracle, helping out is messianic and bearing with the discomfort (a.k.a, the imbecility of Meralco, PAG-ASA and government) and tragedy is saintly. hahaha Okay, I’m being sarcastic but not necessarily untruthful.
The morning after Basyang hit- Surprise surprise! NO cellular signal from Globe or Sun. I immediately bought a Smart Sim so I could call loved ones and ask how they were doing. I was afraid this was another Ondoy. Luckily, it seems Basyang brought more wind than rain, and caused blackout but not floods. It took 2 days before electricity and DSL was restored to our house.
As I am writing this, 3 days after, my phone still has a hard time registering a Sun cellular signal. Ms. Connie, you said Sir Speedy uses Sun Cellular, how is the signal reception there?
Ummm… Speedy bought a Globe SIM. He gave up on SUN when he couldn’t contact the girls.
I live in the tropical part of Australia . Here our Cyclone , ( Typhoon), season lasts from November through to May . during this time clean ups are carried out to cut down on the hazards of flying debris and drains are cleared to ensure water can flow away as quickly as possible . Should a storm start brewing out in The Coral Sea , I live on the north east cost , then warnings are issued via all forms of media , tv , radio and print , and online via the BOM website . People living in areas that may be affected put in place their own action plan . This can be up to a week before there is a chance of the cyclone hitting . Once it appears a cyclone may hit all updates are broadcast hourly and more frequently as the storm approaches . You know when a warning is issued as the broadcast is preceded by a sound similar to a siren . the result ? Flooding ? Yes . Power outages ? Yes . Damage ? Yes. Loss of life ? Very rare . People complaining about no internet , phone or tv ? YES ! Preparedness involves all memebers of society , not just the relevant government agencies , after all we are dealing with a powerful force , Mother nature .