The torrential rains and floods that displaced thousands of residents in Metro Manila and nearby provinces in Luzon due to Super Typhoon “Carina” and the southwest monsoon or “habagat” brought back traumatic memories of Tropical Storm Ondoy fifteen years ago.
Marikina City residents in low-lying villages were forced to evacuate after the Marikina River reached the third and highest alarm at 20.5 meters amid heavy and nonstop rainfall as of Wednesday afternoon.
Residents in Marilao, Bulacan reported experiencing waist- to 8-feet deep floods for the first time since “Ondoy” unleashed record amounts of rainfall in 2009.
Several commuters were left stranded along thoroughfares that turned into rivers in Quezon City and other areas in Metro Manila.
On September 26, 2009, “Ondoy” unleashed 455 millimeters (17.91 inches) of rainfall in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon in 24 hours, leaving at least 464 people dead.
Meteorologist Bernard Alan Racoma said that compared to “Ondoy,” “Carina” and the enhanced “habagat” brought 217 mm of rainfall within the same period.
Senior weather specialist Glaiza Escullar said the more than 200 millimeters (nearly eight inches) of rain that fell in the capital in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning was “not unusual.”
Many individuals took to various social media platforms to share photos and videos of flooded streets and roads.
The hashtag #CarinaPH trended on X along with “Ondoy” as images on social media saw residents on roofs, waiting for rescue, as they watched trash-filled flood swamp their neighborhoods.
“Crossed a knee-high flood with my two dogs to get into a safe place. The whole house is flooded. I don’t even know where my review materials are… Please make it stop. It is Ondoy all over again,” one netizen wrote on X.
“Damn. If not for the clear date and caption, I would have thought Ondoy ito,” wrote journalist Inday Espina-Varona, who shared a Facebook reel showing the swelling of the Marikina River.
“Different timelines and 15 years apart, but essentially, have the same narrative. Nothing changed. Filipinos still suffer due to the ineffectiveness of disaster planning. We deserve better mitigation responses,” another netizen wrote on X.
