Natural disasters cause many deaths world wide every year. In the Philippines, typhoons are one of the common natural disasters. Every year Filipinos deal with typhoon alerts and prepare for damaging winds and rising flood waters. The 2009 Typhoons, deadliest in 40 years, left many homeless Filipino families.
Typhoons struck the Philippines multiple times in 2009 killing more than 850 and leaving many homeless. During the months of September and October, four typhoons made landfall dumping large amounts of rain and bringing damaging winds. This guide page provides information about Philippine typhoons. The recovery effort continued for months with families from some hardest hit areas leaving and relaoting to new towns.
The Government response or inability to provide resque boats or vessels to help get people from the roof tops sparked controversy over the expenditure of funds by the current political leaders.
Although the rainy season of 2009 prompted significant flooding, El Nino caused a significant drought felt in the early February 2010 time frame leaving some areas powered by hydroelectric plants with no power or roving brownouts for extended periods of time.
Philippines Typhoon Ondoy Strands Many During Floods
Typhoon Ondoy dumped the equivalent of 30 days of rain on the Manila Philippines area in less than 24 hours. Flood waters rose rapidly, stranding many on rooftops and moving cars through the flooded streets as shown in this video. Thirty days after the substantial floods many houses continue to have water standing in the first flood areas.