I just got back from teaching there. Diving/boat movement was cancelled (by Coastguard/Storm Signal) most of the weekend, due to typhoon. We finally got out for diving after lunch on Sunday.
Dove the Barges and El Capitan.
Barges has bad viz in the shallows (<2m), but it was clearer when you got below 10m... about 8m viz. Saw the big school of jacks, scorpionfish, stingray and a few nudis. Quite diveable, but this site is normally 20m+ viz.
El Cap had about 6m viz. I'd expect that to improve over the space of the week.
The outer sites (San Quentin, El Cap, Barges, Grande Reefs) should recover viz quickly. They get the benefit of some slight ocean current to clear away the murky water.
USS New York is directly in the path of the Olongapo River - so all the flood water (draining from the mountains) flows over it. Expect viz to be low here. Sometimes you can get lucky and the fresh & salt water haven't mixed. There can be a halocline at 3-5m, trapping all the bad viz at the surface, with clearer (ocean) water underneath. It makes the dive
very dark though - take a torch. George took his boat to the USS NY on Sunday - the divers seemed happy afterwards, but I didn't get the chance to ask them about conditions.
LCU and Japanese Patrol Boat can be very inconsistent after storms. They're in a very protected side-bay, but surrounded by jungle - heavy rain can wash lots of organic material into the water, which takes a while to clear.
LST normally has good viz. It's quite near the mouth of the bay, in deeper water - so if the viz is good anywhere, it will be good there.
There was lots of surface damage from the typhoons - trees down everywhere, brown-outs and internet loss. They were starting the clear-up as I left. The beaches were trashed - lots of debris piled up. No severe flooding in Subic Bay itself, although the surrounding provinces (Zambales, Pampanga and Bulacan) are still in a state of emergency due to massive widespread flooding. No problems getting from Manila-Subic as the main access roads are open and unflooded (some scary views of flooding around San Fernando/Bulacan from the NLEX highway though!).
Visibility is extremely rarely great in Subic Bay so just go for it
I'd disagree. It depends entirely on the site. 20m+ viz is quite normal on some of the sites. Most people just come and visit USS New York, which is never going to give a fair impression of the conditions in Subic. Monsoon/Typhoon season is never going to be great though.
