Now it can be told

EVER since I resumed posting after Reming hit Bicol, I've been wondering why Albay was hit harder despite the fact that the supertyphoon came much closer to Naga -- in fact only around 12 kms south of the city. This can be seen from the UNOSAT map (top) showing the deadly path it took last November 30.

Thanks to Mike Padua's über-useful website on tropical storms entering the country, I now have the answer, in the form of the bottom map from a NASA website that specializes in tropical rainfall measurement. The following quote explains:

Rainfall totals exceeding 200 mm (~8 inches) are shown in red and extend from the western Philippine Sea across southern sections of Luzon, Catanduanes Island (northwestern most island shown), and northern Samar. Locally up to 18 inches of rain were reported in Albay province.

This reminded me of a similar typhoon sometime in the mid-90's whose name eludes me. It hit Naga at around midnight, and the one picture that comes back to mind over and over again were the huge amount of mud and silt -- called dalnak in the vernacular -- its floodwaters deposited right at the city center.

Another is the unusually high water level it brought: If I recall it right, Francis Soler (then my boss at a local aviation concern) recounted to me that their residence in Barangay Dayangdang was flooded waistdeep. Fortunately, the flood went out quite quickly.