The Flooding

The Flooding

The effects of the recent flood tragedy continues to reverberate throughout the islands. Everywhere there are donation boxes and clothes banks. People endlessly discuss friends or relatives affected by the devastating typhoon.

You can see the outline of the island of Mindanao, the site of the tragedy that claimed so many thousands of lives, from Siquijor. Considered to be the most dangerous island to visit in the Philippines, Mindanao suffers from a bad reputation due to its politically volatility. There have been a series of politically motivated kidnappings over the years, with some tourist victims, which have at times ended in the captives murder. A predominately Islamic island, Mindanao is home to number of political groups fighting for a separate and independent system of governance.

The American embassy advises against travel to Mindanao, but the locals in Siquijor rebuff any warnings, describing it as a incredibly beautiful and very friendly island, with only a few dangerous areas worth avoiding.

According to locals I spoke to in Siquijor, one of the main causes of the floods was illegal logging. Large sections of the forests that carpet the mountainous areas of Mindanao had been destroyed by this activity. Without the trees to absorb water and hold the soil in place, when the flash floods swept down from the mountains during the night, as families slept in their houses, there was nothing to impede the force of the raging torrent.

Added to the fact that the island is outside of the typhoon belt, and December is not in typhoon season, when the weather warnings came people did not expect or prepare for a serious storm.

We travelled to Siquijor from the island of Negros, which had also seen some flood damage. Half a mile from the port a huge passenger ferry lay half submerged in the ocean, like a child's toy boat capsized in the bath, sunk by the typhoon that lashed the coast. A surreal and chilling sight.

There were few vegetables available in Siquijor as Mindanao is th main source of agricultural produce for the surrounding islands, and much of the land now lies in ruin. As you look across to the shadowy outline of Mindanao, the sense of distancing one experiences through media reportage falls away, and the suffering and sadness becomes palpable.