Philippines: My Hometown Affected by the Storm and "Habagat".

If you have never been into the Philippines or never heard of it I'll give you some knowledge. The Philippines is an archipelago or an island country meaning it is composed of many island. It is a South East Asian Country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Even though the Philippines is a beautiful country, it is prone to many disaster. First of all, it is located at the Pacific Ring of Fire meaning it is characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Secondly, it is located at the Typhoon Belt of the Pacific Ocean thus, visited by many storms. According to Asian Disaster Reduction Center, "The Philippines is visited by an average of 20 typhoons every year, five of which are destructive."

As of now, we are still experiencing some residual rain from the Tropical Storm Fabian and Habagat or South West Monsoon. My hometown has been affected by it up to now. Flooding, broken trees, and blackouts is normal to me if you have lived in the Philippines for a long time. I will be sharing some pictures and a video of the effects of the storm and habagat to us. Pictures are taken from the Radyo Bandera 107.1 FM Olongapo City facebook page and the video came from my sister and father coming out from work.

This isn't much compared to my younger days that floods are near your belly or over your waist. The local government of Olongapo regularly fix the sewage or the drainage but due to people's laziness throwing trash everywhere clogging the drains, houses and business near the market is flooded often. I don't have any pictures but other areas in Olongapo like the rural or housing sides are also flooded. And house that are built near mountains are affected by landslides and mudslides.

My house is far from the city and is located pretty high above that is why my house is pretty clear from flooding. As of now while I'm writing this blog rain is pouring outside my window. Even though this may look like devastating and hard for us Filipinos, one of our characteristic is resilient. This phenomena is normal to us and we will survive this. No amount of water can break the spirits of Filipinos.