IRRI after typhoon Glenda

According to the Inquirer.com, one of the most powerful storms to hit the Philippines this year, typhoon “Glenda,” dealt Laguna only a glancing blow of about three hours Wednesday, but it was enough to shut down the city, leave the city a shambles and without power, and take at least 20 lives as it blew out into the West Philippine Sea after cutting a wide swath of destruction from eastern southern Luzon.

The number of fatalities in the first major typhoon of the Philippines’ brutal rainy season was hard to determine, as most parts of the stricken regions had no electricity and the main disaster agency groped in the dark for information.

The powerful winds of Glenda (international name: Rammasun, which in Thai means “God of Thunder”) brought down trees, electric posts and ripped off roofs across Laguna, where government offices, schools and the stock market were shuttered for the day.

Without electricity, the elevated commuter train services LRT and MRT in Metro Manila were suspended and most of the city of 12 million people sweltered in the dark for more than half of the day.

The eye of Glenda passed to just south of Metro Manila at wind speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour and with gusts of up to 165 kph.

In 2006, Typhoon “Milenyo” (Xangsane) hit the capital at 130 kph, with gusts of up to 160 kph. The most powerful storm to hit land in recorded history, Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) struck Eastern Visayas on November 8, 2013 with sustained winds of 235 kph and gusts of up to 275 kph.

Glenda leaves the Philippine area of responsibility Thursday.

In IRRI (International Rice Research Institue), University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines,  typhoon Glenda leaves a disaster. According to Mr. Nicholas Kettel, Head of facility management (PPS) of the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI is a non-profit organization that works to fight hunger and poverty in the world, please refer to the IRRI website at http://www.irri.org to find out more about IRRI and what we do to improve the world.

(credits from Mr. Nicholas Ketel)

Engineering Department

Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology (PBGB)

Experiment Station (ES)

Office of PPS (if I'm not mistaken)

Last week in the Night of 15 - 16 July IRRI was hit full by Typhoon Glenda. As can be seen on the video and pictures below, the IRRI institue incurred sever damage said to be among the worse in the institutes 60 year history. Our weather station measured wind gust up to 187 km/h and a rainfall of +240 mm.


The institute will recover, has insurance and the team of 48 IRRI skilled construction workers and approximately 110 flexible contract workers are working round the clock to mitigate hazards and further damage, clean-up the enormous amount of debris, and start repairs on the institute’s facilities.

(This is my own video)

The institute will recover, has insurance and the team of 48 IRRI skilled construction workers and approximately 110 flexible contract workers are working round the clock to mitigate hazards and further damage, clean-up the enormous amount of debris, and start repairs on the institute’s facilities.