Macabre dance?
All demands for mea culpas or accountability over ‘Paeng’ would, however, have to wait as we must all first deal with ‘Queenie’ without letting our guards down.
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Daily TribuneAll demands for mea culpas or accountability over ‘Paeng’ would, however, have to wait as we must all first deal with ‘Queenie’ without letting our guards down.
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Weather bureau PAGASA reported yesterday that "Paeng" re-intensified into a severe tropical storm as it moved away from the Philippines after exacting a heavy toll in terms of several dozens of lives lost, people missing or injured, and a still undetermined value in pesos of properties and crops damaged or destroyed.
As of this writing, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council or NDRMMC has logged 98 fatalities, a number sure to increase with 63 missing and 69 injured, the latter number is silent on whether the injuries sustained by the victims were life-threatening or not.
With Filipinos across the nation going to cemeteries to remember and pray for departed loved ones today and tomorrow, All-Saints' and All-Souls' days, respectively, it would surely be a heart-rending week and months for those of us who have lost family members due to "Paeng."
It's always a poignant scene when people are buried — before their time as victims of calamities or disasters — just days before Undas or, worse, weeks before Christmas, when others are already in remembering or celebratory modes.
For those who are grieving, "Paeng" would henceforth be a name forever tinged with remorse and bitterness, joining "Ondoy" and "Yolanda" and many others in the ignominious list of storms that have devastated the land.
But as if "Paeng" was not enough of a wallop on the national psyche just now recovering from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, here comes another tropical cyclone in "Queenie," which entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility Monday as the one before her left, intensifying into a tropical storm as she did so, according to PAGASA.
"Paeng" and "Queenie", together, could be seen as being engaged Monday in a macabre musical chair dance, or an unwanted tag team of weather systems. No doubt, the ever-intensifying storms hitting us with increasing numbers each year may be the result of climate change being blamed by scientists on global warming due to still unabated carbon emissions, especially from apologetic highly industrialized countries.
In its 11 a.m. bulletin, PAGASA said "Queenie" was spotted 815 kilometers east of Northeastern Mindanao, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 80 km/hour.
PAGASA weather forecaster Grace Castañeda said "Queenie", the 17th tropical cyclone to hit the country this year and the fifth in October, was expected to move towards the east of CARAGA and Eastern Visayas.
Recriminations had been aired over the claimed lack of governmental assistance and preparation in areas, like Muslim Mindanao, hardest hit by "Paeng" while statements had also been made to counter that narrative. According to NDRRMC, about 1.8 million Filipinos, or over 575,000 families were affected by "Paeng."
All demands for mea culpas or accountability over "Paeng" would, however, have to wait as we must all first deal with "Queenie" without letting our guards down due to statements coming from PAGASA that she may peter out into a low-pressure area by tomorrow and may raise no stronger than Wind Signal No. 1.
Here, we hope PAGASA has its forecasting down pat as Filipinos are hoping for every bit of good news following "Paeng." As an LPA, "Queenie", PAGASA said, may bring scattered rain showers and thunderstorms over CARAGA, Eastern Visayas, and the Bicol Region.
"Queenie" is "unlikely to directly affect" the country on Monday and Tuesday, again according to the weather bureau, but it may still bring "flooding and landslides" from heavy rains.
Forewarned is forearmed.
