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A Filipino geologist and academician described the weekend flooding in Quezon City as a strange phenomenon, noting that the thunderstorm-induced rainfall on Saturday afternoon (August 30) exceeded the levels recorded during Typhoon Ondoy in 2009.
A preliminary analysis by the UP Resilience Institute and the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) Center said Quezon City and Nangka in Marikina City received huge volumes of rain that day.
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This is based on rain gauges and Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) weather stations in Metro Manila and data from the I RISE UP (Intelligent, Resilient and Integrated Systems for the Urban Population) program of Quezon City.
Courtesy: DOST-PAGASA Rainfall Table via Dr. Mahar Lagmay
The city government said severe flooding was experienced in several areas, especially in Districts 1, 3 and 4, causing disruption and inconvenience to the public. Out of the 142 barangays, 36 of them were affected.
The peak rainfall in Quezon City reached 121 millimeters in just one hour, much higher than the highest rainfall in one hour during typhoon “Ondoy” (90 mm/hour) in September 2009.
In a Facebook post late Saturday, Dr. Alfredo Mahar Francisco Lagmay, executive director UP Resilience Institute and NOAH Center, found the rains and eventual floods overwhelming in Quezon City. He said it was worse than what people experienced 16 years ago.
“The rains earlier this afternoon (August 30) in Quezon City were terrible!!! That’s a lot of rain delivered in a very short span of time. Most of that 141 mm record in QC was delivered from 2pm to 3 pm,” he said, referring to data recorded for the Science Garden.
“It was worse than torrential rain (30-60 mm/hour). It was extreme (>60 mm/hour). I never thought I would experience such an event,” Lagmay added.
According to the Quezon City Government, its drainage system was unable to handle the large amount of rainwater in such a short time, resulting in severe flooding, even in areas that were not normally flooded.
“The immediate and continuous improvement of the drainage system is what we are trying to solve based on the provisions of the city’s Drainage Master Plan,” the QC government said.
It noted that flood waters eventually receded due to relentless de-clogging operations carried out by the QC Engineering Department.
“The Department of Sanitation and Cleanup Works also immediately took action to remove residents’ belongings that were swept away by the flood and blocked waterways,” it added in a social media post.
The city government vowed to push for the full implementation of the contents of the Drainage Master Plan as a long-term and effective solution to seasonal flooding, instead of flood control projects that have not gone through the local government’s analysis and study.
Based on the scientific analysis and findings of Lagmay and the UP Resilience Institute, the flooding was not Metro Manila-wide, but a hyperlocalized one.
“This anomaly underscores the importance of localized weather monitoring and targeted urban planning,” Lagmay suggested. Quezon City experienced more intense rainfall in one hour than what many cities received the entire day.
“The flooding wasn’t just due to rain — it was due to rainfall delivered too fast for the city’s infrastructure to absorb or redirect,” the geologist explained.
Urban surfaces, like concrete and asphalt, are impermeable, preventing natural absorption, and that the city’s drainage systems, even those recently upgraded, were not designed for this level of intensity, Lagmay said.
The short burst of extreme rainfall created flash flood conditions, especially in low-lying and densely built areas. He said the city government has foreseen such a scenario, noting “this is where science meets governance.”
The Drainage Master Plan was developed in partnership with the UP Resilience Institute that has already identified the flood-prone zones that were affected.
“Dr. Lagmay’s analysis is a wake-up call—not just about rainfall, but about readiness. The science was sound. The warnings were clear. Now, the challenge is to ensure that governance keeps pace with climate reality,” health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon commented.
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