Lives lost, villages destroyed, communities devastated and according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the Philippines disaster was just the beginning
When tropical depression Agaton swept in to the Philippines from the Pacific on 13 January, the rain gauge in Jabonga's new weather station could barely cope: more than 25 inches (635mm) fell in five days, and 47 inches over the course of that month. One in three people in the 24,000-strong community on the island of Mindanao had their homes flooded, and 2,800 had to be evacuated after three whole villages were completely submerged. Newly planted rice and vegetable crops were ruined, and the community is only just beginning to recover.
Torrential rain and flash floods are not unusual in Jabonga, which lies in the lee of a mountain range, but this was January and Agaton dropped three times as much rain as normal across a wide area, killing 37 people in floods and mudslides. No one had ever seen such heavy rain before, even when super-typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, hit the south of Mindanao in November, devastating a large area and causing up to $36bn (£216bn) of damage.
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