TYPHOON ONDOY

Matthew 7:27

Viewing the 1769 King James Version. Click to switch to 1611 King James Version of Matthew 7:27

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Typhoon Ketsana (International designation: 0916, JTWC designation: 17W, PAGASA name: Ondoy) was the most devastating typhoon in the 2009 Pacific typhoon season with a damage of $1.09 billion and 747 fatalities. The storm was the twenty-seventh tropical storm, eighth typhoon and the second major typhoon in the season. It was the most devastating typhoon to hit Manila,^[1] surpassing the Typhoon Patsy in 1970.

Ketsana formed early about 860 km (535 mi) to the northwest of Palau on September 23, 2009. The depression remained weak and was downgraded to a low pressure area later that day by the Japan Meteorological Agency and after drifting through extremely favorable conditions, it intensified the next day and was categorized as Tropical Depression by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration and was given the name Ondoy after entering the Philippine Area of Responsibility. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert on the depression. It was then upgraded to a tropical depression by the JMA later that morning before the JTWC followed suit early on September 25, designating the depression as 17W. Soon, Ketsana was upgraded to a Tropical Storm before passing over the Philippines. As it moved into the South China Sea the storm intensified while moving toward the west, and was categorized as a Severe Tropical Storm by the JMA.

President Gloria Arroyo declared a "state of calamity" encompassing most of Luzon after at least 86 people were initially reported dead in landslides and other incidents.^[2] Flood water levels reached a record 20 feet (6.1 m) in rural areas. As of October 24, 2009, at least 464 deaths in the Philippines were officially reported from the typhoon