New Typhoon hitting the Philippines
The Philippines is still cleaning and recovering from the last two typhoons (Ondoy and Pepeng). Coming Saturday October 31 a new typhoon Santi will pass the country. Pagasa, the Philippine Weather Service, is warning the people for strong winds and maybe lots of rain again. All water reservoirs are below normal level now, to be prepared for heavy rains.
“SANTI” (international name: MIRINAE) will pass the NCR (Metro Manila) directly. There are about 14 million people living in the capital region alone. Several millions more in the surrounding areas.
Every year about twenty typhoons are passing the Philippines. They are not all that so called “super typhoons” like Ondoy was or Pepeng. The coming one, Santi, will be a super typhoon too with wind speed up to 200 km per hour.
At the moment of writing this post the location of the typhoon is 300 km East Northeast of Infanta, Quezon and approaching at the country at 22 km per hour. So late this evening (local time) the typhoon will pass the coast line.
This typhoon is coming on a bad time. This same weekend the Philippines is celebrating All Souls Day (UNDAS in Filipino). Lots of people are visiting the cemeteries the remember their beloved ones. Already several days they are cleaning the graves, painting them again and putting plants and flowers. During these days, cemeteries are fully packed with people. Relatives from far-off provinces, or even abroad often go to the cemeteries where their loved ones were buried. They light candles and offer flowers in memory of their dead relatives. They usually stay there whole day and night praying, singing, and eating. They also play card games and other forms of gambling, deafening loud speakers with karaoke and drinking sessions even though authorities strictly prohibits such nuisances.
The typhoon might scare a lot of people so they stay at home, but for sure many will go to the cemeteries all the same.
Filipino time:
