It’s supposed to be peak dry/summer season but the past few days have been uncharacteristically rainy, to the point that classes were cancelled for two days last week, as the heavy rains brought flooding and misery, as usual.
Despite the lack of the typhoon signal issued by the weather bureau, many Negros Occidental towns and cities called off classes, which has been becoming a common practice these past few months. I don’t know if the PAGASA storm signaling system has become wonky, or if climate change is messing it up further, or if our local officials are just becoming extra cautious, but it was pretty weird to see classes being cancelled because of heavy rains for two consecutive days during the middle of summer, especially when there was no storm signal.
Whatever the reason, the rains were apparently deemed heavy enough to warrant classes being called off. This has happened a number of times this year already, and if the torrential rains caused by a low pressure area, or shear line, or whatever it is now called these days, are enough to cause significant disturbances to our towns and cities, then it may be time for our leaders and city planners to start thinking about making their territories more resilient against non-typhoon rains.
For areas that cannot be fortified against flooding, which is the most common reason for closing down schools and offices, then relocation might have to be considered, because with climate change in full swing, extreme weather events are becoming normal, which means things could simply get worse for those communities that local governments allowed to be haphazardly built in in vulnerable areas when the climate was more well behaved.
Our towns and cities shouldn’t be shut down by rains. Students should be able to go to school safely and without getting their clothes/feet wet, even if it rains cats and dogs. Floods shouldn’t threaten communities because they were allowed to be built in danger zones. As the climate continues to change and weather becomes more extreme, our communities will have to be rain proofed and that is the work of the people who made the best promise to voters during the campaign period.
Speaking of flooding, am I the only one surprised by the degree of flooding in Bacolod City during those recent rainy day episodes?
A couple of Sundays ago, the Bacolod public plaza was apparently literally underwater, in the middle of summer, after just about an hour of heavy rain. Other streets around the city also flooded easily, rising to levels that would be scary for non-SUVs, and absolutely disastrous for any sneakerheads caught unaware by the rain and flooding.
What made it worrying was the Sunday flooding was only the introduction, because there were many repeat performances throughout the week due to the LPA, in most cases causing severe traffic congestion on main thoroughfares. My kids were unfortunate enough to be caught in one such situation last Friday, making them almost miss their appointment with the dentist because they were stuck in nightmarish traffic after heavy rains caused instant-floods all over the city.
What is unfortunate for government officials is that they have been very busy adding hassle to our lives over the past few months, breaking up roads all over the city to either do simple repairs that didn’t seem so necessary to the untrained eye, or to “improve” drainage systems. To be fair to them, the work is still in progress and the upgraded areas might not have been connected to each other or the main drain yet, but the recent flooding certainly ratchets up the pressure on them to make sure they do whatever it is they are doing right. Because it would be a shame if all these hassle they made us go through amounted to nothing and after the hassle of an estimated 200 days of road closures all over the city, we’d end up with the same flooding as we got in the past couple of weeks.
Maybe the LPA is a blessing for Baclodnons, because it reminded the DPWH and city officials of the importance of doing their job right. The drainage improvements they are supposed to be working on are essentially invisible once they cover it up again, and we will never really know if they cleaned up the culverts of construction debris, connected the drains in a cohesive manner that ensures rainwater flows to the sea instead of getting bunched up by clogs all over the supposedly improved system. Last week’s floods demonstrated just how important their job is, and what its impact will be if they mess up. The city folk are still patiently waiting for their work to be done, enduring the traffic and even the floods, hoping that all this tolerance and resilience will be worth it when they are finally done. But if it becomes 2024 and the flooding isn’t addressed by the supposed improvements, frustrations might just spill over.*
