Metro Manila residents kept a nervous eye on water levels at the major waterways as heavy rainfall continued without letup all throughout Thursday, July 22.
And there really was cause for concern: Marikina River levels rose steadily through the evening, gaining more than a meter in five hours, from 12.67m at 3pm to 13.97m at 8pm. If it had kept up at that rate, people living in low-lying areas would have been awakened by flood alarms a bit after 1am.
Thankfully, the rivers flowing through city centers kept to manageable levels, and, while there was some flooding in spots around Metro Manila, disaster was kept at bay.
Undoubtedly there were a whole bunch of people working behind the scenes to keep the city safe—manning monitoring stations, floodgates, and pumping stations that helped drain inland water. They would mostly remain faceless to the rest of us, if not for, say, a shoutout from Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto.
Marikina River Water Level Update:
3:00pm- 12.67m
4:00pm- 12.86m
5:00pm- 13.14m
6:00pm- 13.66m
7:00pm- 14.00m
7:30pm- 13.96m
8:00pm- 13.97m(15 meters = 1st Alarm)
Pumping stations are running– Laging handa sina Marvin. Praying for rain to stop but our teams are ready. pic.twitter.com/qptLka01GM
— Vico Sotto (@VicoSotto) July 22, 2021
Last night, Mayor Sotto tweeted an update on Marikina River water levels, reminding people that the first alarm would be sounded if the water hit 15m. He also reassured his constituents that “Pumping stations are running—Laging handa sina Marvin. Praying for rain to stop but our teams are ready.” (“Marvin [and others] are always prepared.”)
The tweet was accompanied by a selfie of a guy wearing a basketball jersey and a New York Knicks cap giving the thumbs up.
We haven’t met in real life, but we you one, Marvin!
Read: Ateneo de Manila chooses Vico Sotto as the commencement speaker for LS Class of 2021
