Because weather experts failed to properly explain what a storm surge was prior to Yolanda, people in the path of what was to be the world's strongest typhoon simply did what they have always done -- hunker down and try to ride it out. That proved to be a catastrophic mistake for everyone concerned.
But as always happens when people try to atone for mistakes, they tend to overdo things. And so, with the approach of tropical depression Domeng, the same weather experts have now put out a list of dozens of very specific areas that could experience storm surges.
Going over the list, however, several things immediately leap out as being odd. For example, the list is so specific that the names on the list are of barangays instead of towns or provinces. And the list includes places that are either away from the direction of the storm or geographically shielded from it.
And here is another one -- there is no place in the list that is expected to experience a storm surge of more than a meter in height. Given these oddities, plus the fact that the experts simply put out the list without benefit of any explanation, one cannot help but wonder what the weather experts are up to.
Let us go back to the list. In it are three barangays in Balamban -- Arpili, Buanoy and Pondol. If the experts think these areas will experience a storm surge, why would the surge stop at Pondol? After Arpili, Buanoy and Pondol is Aliwanay, then Poblacion. Why the sudden stop at Pondol? Is there a traffic light there?
Now, Balamban is a town on the west coast of Cebu. On the map, it actually faces northwest. If tropical depression Domeng is coming from the southeast, that places Balamban on the leeward side, or directly away from the wind. If there are any storm surges, it should be moving away from Balamban, not into it.
Balamban faces the narrow Tañon Strait between Cebu and Negros, with Cebu positioned perpendicularly on the map. Assuming that Domeng, blowing from the southeast, does create a storm surge, such a surge will have to move up from the Camotes Sea and squeeze itself between Cebu and Leyte.
Once the surge reaches Daanbantayan, it will have to make a u-turn and then move down, squeezing itself again between Cebu and Negros and try to pick out Pondol, Buanoy and Arpili in Balamban without hitting other coastal barangays in Balamban such as Aliwanay. Either Domeng is very bright. Or our experts are, oh well.
By the way, water that rises less than a meter high can, by some stretch of the imagination, be called a surge. But a storm surge? Less than a meter high? No wonder Yolanda was so tragic. Nobody was sure what a storm surge was. Had the experts simply said tidal wave, that would have driven the urgency home.