Velez: Wednesday rain, Thursday rise

RAIN greeted me when I woke up Wednesday morning. It stayed on and played music on the roof and on asphalt. But at night, the rain was making me sleepless.

In between deadlines, I kept looking out the window to see if the rainwater didn't gather up on the road. There are reasons to be worried when rains like this come. In this side of the south of Davao City, where there are rivers and old riverways between subdivisions, this downpour signal distress.

Six years ago on June 29, a downpour late at night triggered a flashflood in Matina Crossing, Matina Aplaya, Matina Pangi, and Bankgal. Residents awoke on midnight and scampered atop rooftops as waters engulfed their houses. Sadly, twenty-five people including children died that night.

These are memories that are triggered now with the sign of heavy rains. There are also lessons in disaster preparedness and management among local authorities, rescue responders and even among residents.

Those things came into work. Thursday morning, I was greeted by a little flood outside my gate, and advisories that classes in all public schools were suspended and Matina Crossing was placed on orange level and residents were advised to be on alert as rivers were swelling.

Fortunately, the rain stopped that day and the river calmed down later. No casualties were reported. Houses and streets were flooded. Including a part of our subdivision. It was a sigh of relief for many. But a thought lingers: are floods and heavy rain the new normal? And are we adjusting to it well?

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Issues on rains and flooding in Davao City that need to be addressed:

Is the public knowledgeable about the alert levels? What is orange-level or yellow-level alert? There should be information billboards in flood-prone areas in the city to make residents aware.

Residents are best advised to have an emergency packs ready all the time, a pack of extra clothes, blankets, food, and other personal things.

Houses in flood-prone or landslide-prone areas need to be moved, but relocation is another concern.

Commuting (or stranded) during floods is stressful. Jeepneys sometimes give up going through flooded streets. So public transportation have to be deployed to helped hapless commuters.

Higher sidewalks or path-walks for pedestrians. It's been difficult to do patintero with puddled-filled roads, and there's no protection from the splash of mud when vehicles (especially insensitive fast ones) pass by.

Advocacy on the effects of climate change, how mining and agri-business affecting the city, and how we can be proactive in averting a disaster.

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Rains used to poetic and whispering.

Now, most of the time, they rage and cry.

tyvelez@gmail.com