First, to friends and family who are wondering about us here in Davao, we are fine. It is my normal habit to check the satellite weather picture every morning and in the early mornng of September 26, I saw a very dark red blob painted over Metro Manila. I even said to Kjartan "Oh oh, Manila has lots of rain today". Even though Manila is hit by floods every year, I could not imagine it was going to be this terrible. Typhoon Ondoy, international code name Ketsana, poured more than a month's worth of rain in 9 hours (total rainfall for the nine-hour deluge was 41.6 centimeters (16 inches), breaking the previous single-day record of 33.4 centimeters in July 1967). Almost 80% of Metro Manila is under water, some parts as high as six metres (20 feet), forcing the government to declare a "state of calamity" that allowed authorities to use emergency funds. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, homes washed away, and at least 240 people dead or missing. You can help by donations to the Philippine National Red Cross.
>Ondoy's Trail of Fury
In checking the 7 day weather forecast, I see 2 low pressure systems building up west of Palau. One will travel northwest towards Northern Luzon and the other more northwards towards Japan. This is just a forecast based on computer models and it changes daily. I pray that it will not hit the Manila region when it is still vunerable.