|
|
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 08/02/2010 : 23:45:02
|
Baguio City was designed as one of the world's first modern planned cities. In 1904, the famed American architect Daniel Burnham laid out the plans for a beautiful colonial mountain city of 25,000 to be built around a central "green" park. It was to be a small city elevated above the sweltering tropical lowlands, designed to highlight the finest of American colonial taste and ingenuity. It was a truly lovely plan. And it worked, for a time.
Bronze bust of Daniel Burnham, in Burnham Park, Baguio.
Aside from the park and its lake, you'd hardly notice any signs of Daniel Burnham's design today. Baguio now has a population of over 450,000, jammed onto almost every precarious mountainside and into every sodden valley swamp. The streets are gridlocked with jeepneys, buses, taxis, trucks, private cars and motorcycles.
As I have mentioned previously, August is the historically wettest month of the year in this tropical mountain city. A torrential 1160.8 millimeters (45.701 inches) of rain can be expected each August, give or take a bit. In fact, the Tagalog word, bagyo was coined as a term meaning "typhoon" after a tropical cyclone spilled 660.4 mm. (46 inches) in 24 hours on Baguio, back in 1911.
Hillside homes now in Baguio.
Between desperation for living space, unsafe geology and official corruption, homes have been and still are being built upon dangerous, mudslide-prone mountainsides. I took the above photos yesterday.
Last year, over 160 people were killed in Baguio and nearby communities by mudslides.
Mudslides in 2009.
The City Camp barangay of Baguio flooded in 2009, as always happens when the drainage tunnel from that district to the formerly lovely Crystal Cave is blocked by trash and debris.
City Camp, Baguio in 2009.
The "lessons" of last year, like the lessons of the Luzon Earthquake 20 years ago, have been learned by locals, but have not been acted upon. Entire hillsides seem to be just itching to slide downward again, carrying homes and people with them.
|
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/03/2010 03:08:40
|
|
|
sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 06:04:25 [Permalink]
|
| So what's the topography like right above you? Are you near a ridge or on a steep grade? SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
 |
|
|
HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 20:03:00 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by sailingsoul
So what's the topography like right above you? Are you near a ridge or on a steep grade? SS |
It's quite steep (though not precipitous like in my photos) here, but it's very well drained. There is just one house that is further back from the street behind me, and of course many houses up the street above me.
I take it as a good sign that there haven't been slides in the past right here. Also, as a rule of thumb, muddy water running down the street during a heavy rain is a sign that earth is eroding. The water right here runs clear from both up-street and from the house behind me, even during deluges. I have seen no mud at all. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Baguio, waiting for the deluge
