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im no expert... but ive been watching storms since 2007 eversince i got assigned to manage liveaboards... one thing i do notice about storms here in the philippines is they usually form south east of the country somewhere over palau and move north north west... sometimes they enter the philippines as early as the visayas region and work their way north north west and exit to the west this happened in the case of ondoy; ondoy i think was truly devastating to manila because its movement clearly slowed down when it was over the city. dropping tons and tons of rain on manila that if had it not slowed down would have been dropped somewhere out in the south china sea.
Many storms form out over the pacific ocean and just move north making land fall way north of the visayas, batangas, manila and central luzon. they do however make land fall in northern luzon in places like ilocos, abra, benguet pangasinan, and isabela. This is why the north is constantly battered by typhoons. Soemtimes they move directly west and those hit the visayas and the bicol regions hard.
rarely or even maybe never have i seen a storm here just do a 180 and move in a southern direction... hence the reason why mindanao is called "land beneath the weather" storms here from my observation again move north-north west... sometimes even west... now if land fall was in the bicol region then batangas would surely be under threat and even i would've cancelled diving then. but if its way to the north west like batanes and isabella... then batangas would be safe, and even if i would think so, the sights i mentioned in my initial thread were very very limited to the ones which were safely doable and close to the mainit area no more than 25mins travel time.
also im no expert, never been in a disaster coordinating council of any country, but i have worked with some of the best naval captains in the liveaboard industry, and have trusted them enough to know that when i show them the positions of the storms or even just low pressure areas, they'll know what actions to take and when. I was out onboard during some of the strongest super typhoons in 2010 and their know how always brought us into sheltered waters, ive also lived through some really rough crossings but ive always felt that had we stayed put the storm would've hit us even harder than what we did experience.
truth is i feel safer out in the middle of the ocean during a storm rather than tied up to the dock or wharf where surge and waves can do so much more damage to the vessels and put more lives in danger. Case in point was the biggest liveaboard disaster in history, that boat was tied to the pier, and 20 or so guests and crew lost their lives in their sleep thinking they were safely moored.
I our industry safety always comes before $$$... but there are imperfect situations that we have to live with... I mean ive done a couple of dives in the uk... almost nothing ive been through here has compared to the swell and the weather of those...
I could be wrong, and will watch these things more carefully from now on though...
Many storms form out over the pacific ocean and just move north making land fall way north of the visayas, batangas, manila and central luzon. they do however make land fall in northern luzon in places like ilocos, abra, benguet pangasinan, and isabela. This is why the north is constantly battered by typhoons. Soemtimes they move directly west and those hit the visayas and the bicol regions hard.
rarely or even maybe never have i seen a storm here just do a 180 and move in a southern direction... hence the reason why mindanao is called "land beneath the weather" storms here from my observation again move north-north west... sometimes even west... now if land fall was in the bicol region then batangas would surely be under threat and even i would've cancelled diving then. but if its way to the north west like batanes and isabella... then batangas would be safe, and even if i would think so, the sights i mentioned in my initial thread were very very limited to the ones which were safely doable and close to the mainit area no more than 25mins travel time.
also im no expert, never been in a disaster coordinating council of any country, but i have worked with some of the best naval captains in the liveaboard industry, and have trusted them enough to know that when i show them the positions of the storms or even just low pressure areas, they'll know what actions to take and when. I was out onboard during some of the strongest super typhoons in 2010 and their know how always brought us into sheltered waters, ive also lived through some really rough crossings but ive always felt that had we stayed put the storm would've hit us even harder than what we did experience.
truth is i feel safer out in the middle of the ocean during a storm rather than tied up to the dock or wharf where surge and waves can do so much more damage to the vessels and put more lives in danger. Case in point was the biggest liveaboard disaster in history, that boat was tied to the pier, and 20 or so guests and crew lost their lives in their sleep thinking they were safely moored.
I our industry safety always comes before $$$... but there are imperfect situations that we have to live with... I mean ive done a couple of dives in the uk... almost nothing ive been through here has compared to the swell and the weather of those...
I could be wrong, and will watch these things more carefully from now on though...
key word over the years=lolo and lola experiences :cool2:
Hoping it will get better this weekend.
