THE sea level around Bantayan Island rose from 1.95 meters to as high as 10 feet last Friday night due to a combination of high tide and the northeast monsoon, locally known as amihan.
In Madridejos town, the sea level rose to as high as 10 feet, battering about 86 fishing boats, said Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Officer (MDRRMO) Jessie Estillore.
“It was like a storm surge,” Estillore said.
In Sta. Fe, MDRRMO Lea Escarlan said they didn’t have a way to measure the waves, but she found out it was 1.9 meters as can be seen on weather sites.
In the Municipality of Bantayan, Mayor Art Despi said the seawater rose to 1.95 meters at midnight, damaging properties.
Despi said the seawater at high tide was blown by the 40-50 kph northeast monsoon.
“We are still assessing the actual damage in the coastal barangays exposed to the northeastern monsoon. Luckily, there’s no damage on human lives. Only the boats (motorbancas) that were docked along the shorelines were battered by the wind wave,” Despi said.
Al Quiblat, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in Mactan, said there is a big difference between “wind wave” and “storm surge.”
He said that a storm surge is a wave generated by a low pressure area (LPA) or a typhoon, like what happen in Tacloban City at the height of typhoon Yolanda, which also hit Bantayan Island on Nov. 8, 2013.
The wind wave, on the other hand, is generated by other weather systems, like the northeast monsoon, thunderstorm and southwest monsoon.
Usual high
Despi said that during amihan (November to February), the seawater is usually high during night time and that’s normal. During southwest monsoon (habagat) from June to September, the seawater is normally high during the day; the highest tide is two meters or more.
“That’s why it was very fortunate that Yolanda hit Bantayan Island during the day (otherwise it would have led to a storm surge) because the high tide was at night at that time,” Despi said.
Estillore, on the other hand, said that if the high waves were pushed by a storm, it would have been called storm surge.
“We never expected it because there was no advisory from Pagasa and that was the first, I guess, that we encountered such huge waves,” Estillore said.
Estillore reported that 186 motorbancas were damaged by the wind wave.
“Fisherfolks had their local initiatives to move their bancas to safer areas, but failed due to the huge waves that were as high as 10 feet.
First time
Estillore said it was the first time they had encountered such huge waves.
For her part, Escarlan said that three pumpboats were missing in Barangay Kinatarcan and one boat was damaged in Barangay Talisay.
“I am still waiting for the damage assessment reports from other barangays,” Escarlan said.