Read on, This is quite alarming. All the while we thought Dams release water at the time Typhoon is hitting on Central Luzon.
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SAYS WEATHER BUREAU EXEC
No water release from dams in Ondoy floods


INQUIRER.net
First Posted 10:58:00 10/05/2009

Filed Under: Congress, Disasters (general), Flood, Ondoy

MANILA, Philippines—The flooding in low-lying areas in Metro Manila and nearby provinces at the height of tropical storm Ondoy was caused by excessive rainfall and not by the release of water from the Angat and Ipo dams, the chief of the state-owned weather bureau said.

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) Administrator Nilo Prisco, told the Senate committee on climate change: “In as far as the flooding in Metro Manila is concerned, there’s no contribution from Ipo or Angat dam.”

Aside from excessive rainfall, Prisco said the heavy flooding was caused by “waterways that do not have the capacity to carry such volume of water.”

Even if the waterways were not clogged, he said, the city would still experience flooding because there was just too much water.

“But if the waterways are not clogged or have not been reduced in terms of capacity to carry water, the water would have subsided much faster,” he further said.

Prisco also said the country does not yet have Doppler radars to measure the volume of the rainfall although it has weather satellite information which can describe whether the rain is going to be heavy, moderate, or light.

He told the Senate committee that the agency has already purchased five Doppler radars but they were still being manufactured. He is asking for additional funding to purchase two more.

Also present at the hearing by the Senate committee on climate change headed by Senator Loren Legarda were Defense Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, Office of Civil Defense chief Brigadier General Glenn Rabonza, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, and other experts.
Maila Ager