From the
Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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MANILA, Philippines—Presiding over his first disaster management briefing, President Benigno Aquino III Wednesday took to task the weather bureau for its failure to notify the public that Typhoon “Basyang” (international codename: Conson) would directly hit Metro Manila.
Officials from various agencies reported to Mr. Aquino the extent of the typhoon’s damage and the steps taken to normalize the situation at the emergency meeting of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in Camp Aguinaldo.
After listening to an update by weather bureau chief Prisco Nilo, Mr. Aquino wondered aloud why the bureau failed to update its bulletin on the typhoon’s track.
The President said that contrary to the last bulletin of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on Tuesday that Basyang would make land fall in Aurora, it struck the metropolis, toppling power lines and trees.
Significant error
“We rely on you to tell us where the problem is or where the potential problem areas are ... this is unacceptable,” said Mr. Aquino, who closely monitored the development of the typhoon even as he hosted a dinner with the media on Tuesday night.
“May we know why the significant error happened and what directions can be done later on?” he asked PAGASA officials.
Nilo explained that the bureau’s model allowed it to only issue bulletins every six hours. He also said that while the bureau only predicted it would cross Bulacan and Central Luzon, it raised Signal No. 2 in the metropolis.
Mr. Aquino pointed out that many things could happen in six hours and reminded the PAGASA officials that they should have plugged this gap a long time ago.
“I hope this is the last time that we are all brought to areas different from where we should be,” he said, telling the officials to list down the equipment that they needed and that the government could provide.
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So we get another bad typhoon in the Philippines and as usual, PAGASA had another prediction error.
Lack of equipment and training is really crippling the country that gets hit regularly by typhoon.
It's actually depressing to see that an amateur meteorologist, Mike Padua, a Naga City-based amateur meteorologist who has his own storm tracking site (www.typhoon2000.ph) is actually out predicting PAGASA.
Not only that, some of the most experienced meteorologist of PAGASA has actually been pirated by other countries like Dubai and Australia.
I read somewhere that PAGASA personnel are paid only P20,000 per month. If you were working for PAGASA and under those conditions, wouldn't you leave for better opportunities as well?
Full article at
The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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