Philippines: The perfect storm · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

More than twenty typhoons enter the Philippines every year. But super typhoon Milenyo (international name: Xangsane) which recently hit the northern part of the country shocked everyone with its ferociousness and the degree of destruction it left along its way. Metro Manila was severely damaged. Power blackouts gripped the Luzon island for almost a week. Flashfloods were reported even in the highlands.
Basang Panaginip was able to track almost all stories, photos and videos posted by bloggers on the impact of typhoon Milenyo.
Iloilo City Boy describes the damage inflicted by typhoon Milenyo in Panay island, part of central Philippines.
A Nagueño in the Blogosphere is from the region which was most badly hit by the typhoon. The blogger recalls how he and his neighbors have to bribe the village electrician to have their broken lines fixed.
Airs in G returns to his home province and was shocked by what he witnessed:
“The city remains in terrible condition: no power (the electric cooperative, mired in debt, projects full power restoration only by December), no classes everywhere with the extensive damage to school buildings, hundreds of evacuees still housed in classrooms, and ordinary businesses that can't afford generators unable to function.”
The blogger appeals for prayer and donation. Check his blog to learn more on how you can deliver your donation.
Sanyata reminds everyone that life is harder outside of Manila. Classes were suspended for more than a week already in a state university.
Like a Rolling Store lambasts insensitive lawmakers:
“In a time of severe economic distress, lawmakers aligned with the administration have not given up on changing the constitution, trying to make a final big push before Congress goes on recess by mid-October…While millions are languishing without power, those who wield it are still craving for more.”
Ruffy Biazon, a congressman-blogger ponders on the “power of Nature”:
“The wrath of typhoon Milenyo, which had winds of up to 165 kilometers per hour, surely reminded us of the power of Nature, of which even the technological advances of man have proven to be no match against.”
His privilege speech in Congress echoed the sentiments of almost all residents of Metro Manila:
“Billboards which stand on government owned property should be the first to go. Whether to remove them outright or replace them with smaller sized billboards is within the power of government.”
But Alternation101 observes that commercial billboards which were removed after a public clamor for their dismantling are now back as eye sores and road hazards.