Storm surge from Manila Bay floods Roxas Blvd, now impassable

The US Embassy on Roxas Blvd. appeared to TV news viewers like it had merged with Manila Bay Tuesday morning. Floodwaters had risen halfway up its front gate, perhaps four feet, by midmorning. Much of Roxas Boulevard was similarly submerged, as well as United Nations Avenue and other areas adjacent to the bay. A storm surge in the bay caused by Typhoon Pedring's ferociously strong winds, and not simply rainwater, could have produced the flood, according to DOST-PAGASA Undersecretary Graciano Yumul on Balitanghali.

A storm surge is a phenomenon characterized by a rush of seawater towards the coast brought by strong winds, as illustrated by the graphic below. In an interview with GMA News Online, PAGASA weather forecaster Raymond Ordinario said that the flooding on Roxas Boulevard could also be the result of "swells", or tall waves that follow the passage of a storm. He clarified that storm surges occur in the center of a storm. In a weather update, PAGASA indicated that coastal areas in Central Luzon are also at risk of storm surges. - Roehl Niño Bautista/HS, GMA News