Download - Understanding Sendong Floods

8/3/2019 Understanding Sendong Floods

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ALL Typhoons in

the Philippines

passed this way,EXCEPT Sendong.


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No one here

recalls ever havinga typhoon pass by

here in his/her

ENTIRE life.


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No typhoon ever.Until December

16-17, 2011

VISAYAS

MINDANAO


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Cagayan de Oro City

Iligan City

BUT Authorities were alertedabout Sendongs path days

before it came.


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Do we blame Sendong

for the deaths and

devastation?

Hardly. Let me illustrate.


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There was no pre-emptive evacuation

despite thewarnings nor the

memory of theflooding in 2009


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Clearly, Typhoon

Sendong was

expected to just pass

by and life would

return to normalcy


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Cagayan de Oro City

Mandulog

Lanao del SurBukidnon

Iligan City

They forgot one thing: water flows down

rapidly from denuded forests.

Denuded

Catch

Basin


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And while it [catch basin of Cagayan River]

encompasses 1,521 square kilometers of

mountainous terrain, it occupies only 86 sq km oflevel area.

We had been warned of Cagayan Rivers fury by Antonio Montalvan II, Philippine

Daily Inquirer (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/116425/we-had-been-warned-of-cagayan-rivers-fury)

That is why it is also the

citys main tourism resource:

Because it moves downslope at a fast velocity, its

water creates white-foam

rapids so suitable for white-

water raftinga natural traitnot all rivers exhibit.


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Unknown to us, the rainfall

over at the Bukidnon side

was greater. That rainfall hadto naturally settle in its catch

basin, and what a mammoth

basin it turned out to be.

That early dawn of Dec. 17,Macajalar Bay was on high

tide. In all low-lying areas and

elsewhere in the city, people

were asleep in the dark. The

combination was lethal. Therest is now history.

We had been warned of Cagayan Rivers fury by Antonio Montalvan II, Philippine

Daily Inquirer (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/116425/we-had-been-warned-of-cagayan-rivers-fury)


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Picture from the Facebook Photo Album of Larry Macatol

In the grander scheme of things,

these people were relatively lucky.


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ILIGAN CITY These are some of the logs and cut down trees that were

carried by the flood to the city of Iligan. Along the way, it caused damage tohouses and killed hundreds of people. Until now there could still be dead people

below the piles of logs. (From the Facebook Photo Album posted by FrancisMacatol, 23 Dec 2011

Logs washeddownstream


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Images from Philippines: Mayor to defy President Aquino order to relocate residents out of flood

zone (http://www.mikeinmanila.com/2011/12/22/philippines-mayor-to-defy-president-aquino-order-to-

relocate-residents-out-of-flood-zone/)

Area declared as flood zone

in Cagayan de Oro City, 2010


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The same zone as pictured

from the air on Dec 20, 2011

Images from Philippines: Mayor to defy President Aquino order to relocate residents out of flood zone (http://

www.mikeinmanila.com/2011/12/22/philippines-mayor-to-defy-president-aquino-order-to-relocate-residents-

out-of-flood-zone/)


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CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY WIPEOUT Rampaging waters from the Cagayan de Oro River

swept away this entire community of some 400 households in Sitio Kala-Kala, Barangay

Macasandig, in Cagayan de Oro City. BOBBY LAGSA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

(http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/113597/deadly-mix-for-disaster)


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The tragedy that struck the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan was an event waiting to

happen. It was foretold three years ago, but was dismissed by lawmakers as too alarmist. ~

Sendong disaster foretold 3 years ago by Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer

(http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/114171/sendong-disaster-foretold-3-years-ago)


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Photo from the Facebook

Photo Album posted by

Francis Macatol


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Francis Macatol


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Francis Macatol


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Did this

have to

happen?


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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/12/23/11/search-missing-sendong-victims-goes-online

Did this have to happen?


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Logs washeddownstream

Did this have to

happen?


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Images from Philippines: Mayor to defy President Aquino order to relocate residents out of flood

zone (http://www.mikeinmanila.com/2011/12/22/philippines-mayor-to-defy-president-aquino-order-to-

relocate-residents-out-of-flood-zone/)

Did this have to

happen?


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Keeping people out

of hazardous areasis one thing.

DO NOT DEFY IT!


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Cagayan de Oro City

Mandulog


Iligan City

Denuded

Catch

Basin

Doing something about

this is another


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Cagayan de Oro City

Mandulog


Iligan City

What did we do in the last 30 years?

Denuded

Catch

Basin


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But jarring this otherwise pleasant tableau

were red-brown grids of degraded hillsidesand heavy silt that turn riverbeds into eerie

mud flats. Further upstream one is witness

to the continuing rape of

primary-growth forests, in stiffdefiance of a logging ban in the country.

~ Lessons from Sendong by Neric Acosta, Philippine Star(http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=761253&publicationSubCategoryId=63)


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Trees are

like HANDS

that wouldcatch therain and

deliver them

back to ouracquifers

and rivers &prevent

FLOODS.~ Text & Illustration

from Kenneth

Carmelita Macatol-

Enriquez, City

Engineer, Cebu City


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Trees are

like HANDS

that wouldcatch therain and

deliver them

back to ouracquifers

and rivers &prevent

FLOODS.~ Text & Illustration

from Kenneth

Carmelita Macatol-

Enriquez, City

Engineer, Cebu City


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PROTECT

THE

FORESTS!

The forests we protect

will protect us in turn


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Somehow I recall that

they taught us that inPlantation Elementary

School.


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Not hard to

understand,

isnt it?


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Unless your

livelihooddepends on not

understanding it.


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TREESby: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.


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THANKS FOR WATCHING

THE SLIDES.

Lets make a difference.

Pass these slides to

everyone you know.


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That enlightened leaders

may one day make the

enlightened decisions

that the Filipino society

sorely needs today.


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I grew up in Bukidnon and spent 3 years in Cagayan de Oro City

before finishing BS Agricultural Engineering major in Land and Water

Resources at the University of the Philippines Los Banos.

Marvin Macatol

www.familyforkids.wordpress.com