As many of you know I have a strong affinity with this beautiful country. Right now they are having an extremely tough time with weather. I've seen first hand what type of rain they get during typhoon season (August-November) although technically they can get typhoon's any time of the year. With the first typhoon earlier this week (Typhoon Ketsana) 293 are feared dead and over 400,000 are displaced in the city of Manila and its surrounding provinces. Now, to add insult to injury, typhoon Parma is bearing down packing 120 mph headwinds. The president has announced a national state of calamity. I hope everyone makes it through as I have both family and friends there. Here are a few pictures of Manila, the nations capital.

One other note, the problem with Manila is it sits well below sea level as the rest of the country sits above sea level. The Philippines was created by volcanic eruptions so a good deal of the country sits above sea level.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091002/ap_on_re_as/as_asia_storm