Metro Manila and Rizal (where The Salvation Army's Joyville Home and the Training College are located) experienced the worst flooding in 40 years and today it is estimated that over 300,000 are still crammed into makeshift evacuation centres and at least 636 are now confirmed dead.
But as if that wasn't enough since last Friday and the return of Typhoon Pepeng (Parma) the regions to the North of Manila, (including Pangasinan and Luzon) have been decimated again by record rains which have resulted in breaching of dams - and together are resulting in landslides and flooding that have to date killed at least 299 with the number of missing "impossible to measure" and an estimated 42,123 people in evacuation centres in one region alone.
Over 4.5 million people have now been impacted by the two Typhoons - and Typhoon season is not over. As we handed out relief packages in one of the worst hit areas last week one young woman, with a baby in her arms asked, "don't you feel sorry for us? And we have heard that another typhoon is coming beginning December!"
The current flooding is not anticiplated to recede in some areas for 5 months, already many of the people most affected live precarious existences, some choose to live in a shanty town on the edge of a floodway or in an 'illegal squat on the shores of flood prone lakes, in an effort to eke out a living for themselves and family. They knew the risks - but what choices did they have? But before they begin to contemplate relaxing and rebuilding their lives, they hear - there's more to come.
The rest of the world moves on - the news cycle has moved beyond the Philippines to the latest disaster or movie star, but as it does the water levels in the dams continue to rise beyond their tipping point, Pepeng continues to hang around teasing an already traumatised people and the rains continue to fall. The misery continues, and if possbile increases for the Philippines and her people.
