TROPICAL STORM HAGUPIT (Typhoon Ruby)

                                            A super typhoon... In December?!


I'm not big on the whole climate change thing, but this is pretty darn WEIRD.

When it hits us it will be called Typhoon Ruby. Its expected to make landfall in the Philippines this Thursday, December 4, 2014 and its gonna be a really strong one too with winds reaching up to 155MPH. That is a storm category 4 out of 5. If Yolanda was a lesson, we could expect another disaster in the making.

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Lessons From the Past

In my part of the world, our storm season is supposed to be between June to August. That was when I was little, about 25 years ago it stayed in that schedule. In the last 10 years I've noticed that we started having typhoons as early as April, which is supposed to be summertime.

And then it creeps past August, and we'd get the odd storm like Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in November.

Its pretty weird to get a calamity of this magnitude at this part of the year. There was a time when Haiyan was called a ONE IN FIFTY YEARS thing. 

Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) was the other big one, the FloodApocalypse. It paralyzed central Luzon and much of Metro Manila with a month's worth of rain dumped in a matter of a single week. People were forced out of their homes with water rising above two storeys in some places, unfortunately these were also residential areas.

Maybe there is something to this climate cha-cha thingamabob.

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Preparedness Levels

Whatever it is, I've got a month's worth of food at home. We have filtration systems to last forever. I'm not worried about my family. I live well above sea level. Noah would approve.

We're not in danger of flying debris because my home is made of concrete. Trouble? You know I'm ready for that too.

Its everybody else living in the lowlands that I'm worried about. Or those who live on our eastern seaboard like in Leyte. Darn it, I sure hope nobody gets hurt this time around! Or at least as few as possible.  :-(

I know I'm not the only one who's prepared. I'm even happy to report that we have serious preppers in Leyte and other Haiyan-affected areas because they are the TRUE survivors. Armed with solar power, wind turbines, water filtration, supplies, and neighborly coordination, they can pull through another big one. I just wish it didn't have to come again so soon.

I've spend the day sending out severe weather alerts to our office staff, clients, and family. I'm in the risk management profession, its what I do.

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After this mess, we'll go into high-gear again to help out whoever was affected in true Pinoy fashion. Helping our neighbors is what we're famous for. Its called Bayanihan.

You can't fight force majeure but you could plan for it and roll with the punches. Lets hunker down and stay safe this week.





Stay vigilant!