Wet and Windy

It's rainy season again in the Philippines. And typhoon season. We've just had a particularly powerful  cat.5 typhoon (Odette or Usagi to use its international name) pass over the north end of Luzon. Thankfully it didn't pass directly over the Philippines because the fallout from it missing the place was bad enough.  Olongapo was completely flooded, as were most of the surrounding towns and villages. Sadly too many people died as a result of the flooding and a large landslide killed 23.

Subic Bay was largely unscathed but then that's probably a legacy of good infrastructure left courtesy of the Americans.  It says volumes that the drainage systems still work as effectively today as it did when they it was installed.  The drainage system doesn't seem to work anywhere else in the Philippines.

Manila floods every year but it gets reported like it wasn't expected.  The only thing that's unexpected is the fact that it wasn't expected.

Our wages clerk went to the bank the other day to pay in some cheques.  Some of the banks wouldn't accept them.  When I asked why, I was told because it was raining.  To clarify I asked if the banks were closed because it was raining but no, they were open but just wouldn't accept any cheques because it was raining.  Work that one out if you can because I can't see any logic to it.