Reflection on Typhoon Kristine
A tropical storm is a very powerful low-pressure weather system. It has strong
winds and heavy rainfall that can be disruptive and dangerous.
Tropical storms are given different names around the world:
hurricanes in the US and the Caribbean
cyclones in South Asia
typhoons in East Asia
willy-willies in Australia
They all develop in the same way, have the same characteristics and are all tropical
storms. Satellites are used to track the movement of hurricanes, so that people are
better prepared before they arrive. Note the size, the swirls of cloud, and the eye at the
centre.
The Philippines is prone to tropical cyclones due to its geographical location which
generally produce heavy rains and flooding of large areas and also strong winds which
result in heavy casualties to human life and destructions to crops and properties.
Personally, I only understood the word typhoon. When they say it’s a tropical
cyclone or tropical depression, I don’t really think much of it. With typhoon Kristine, it
was announced it was signal no. 1 and as I’ve checked the Windy app, it will only pass
by the waters of our country. So, even if it crossed my mind to prepare my classroom for
the typhoon, I dismissed the idea, I was feeling lazy and truthfully, I don’t have the
money to buy those large plastic bags to pack my documents, books and other things.
Even in our house, we did not prepare.
Unlike typhoon Rolly, that was the year 2020, it was the third typhoon within 2
weeks, if I remember it right, so I thought I should be prepared, my classroom might not
be saved for the third time. So, my modules were in a big box, and those boxes, I put it
on top of unused chairs, I put all the books, loose modules and all my documents in big
plastic bags. I pushed my tables on the wall at the back of the room and put all those
bags on top of the tables, I took out the drawers from the table and put it on top of it.
Then I pushed all the armchairs to the back of the room, linked all the arm of the chairs,
lined it wall to wall from left to right, so that if it floods, it will not move around that
much. I had burned and disposed the garbage. My thought was, if it floods, the garbage
won’t add to the mud that needs to be cleared, and it would be disgusting to clear muds
if there are garbage too. In our house, we had bags of sand blocking the door.
I wish, I/we had done all these again. I became too relaxed, since there were no
heavy typhoons after Rolly. I prepared for typhoons a few times after Rolly, I became too
tired to prepare after that. I forgot that Philippines will always be a path for typhoons,
and we do get a lot in a year. With these climate changes, signal no. 1 feels like it’s
signal no. 3 typhoon that we have experienced before. Land mass has changed, more
houses, more people means more garbage, so, if there’s no effective flood control, all
those places that had not been flooded will experience it one day.
Lesson learned, we should always be prepared for disasters. We should learn to
understand the reports and warnings of PAG-ASA. Being prepared minimizes loss in
property, time, money and life.
