Typhoon Vamco (Ulysses, 2020)
Also known as: Typhoon Ulysses · Typhoon Ulysses (2020) · Vamco (international name)
Definition
Typhoon Vamco, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ulysses, was the November 2020 tropical cyclone that battered Luzon with a series of landfalls on November 11-12, 2020. It drove the Marikina River to near-record heights, submerged wide areas of Metro Manila and triggered the worst flooding in the Cagayan Valley in decades, weeks after Super Typhoon Goni (Rolly) had already saturated the same regions.
Identities
| Database | Identifier |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Typhoon Vamco |
| Wikidata | Q101437849 |
| DBpedia | N/A |
Also Known As
- Typhoon Ulysses
- Typhoon Ulysses (2020)
- Vamco (international name)
Examples and Analogies
For Metro Manila, Ulysses functioned as a dark replay of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana, 2009): a night of rising water that swallowed ground floors and stranded thousands on rooftops, while for Cagayan it was a slower catastrophe of rivers swelling over entire towns.
Usage Scenarios
Vamco is studied in disaster-risk-reduction training as a compound event: dams at critical levels releasing spillway discharges, saturated soil from a preceding super typhoon, pandemic-era evacuation complicating rescue, and millions left without power for days.
Strategies
Government response combined pre-emptive evacuation, military and coast guard rescue flotillas and forced flood-control reviews, while local governments in Marikina and Cagayan later pushed dredging, spillway and watershed protection programs to blunt repeats.
Security and Safety Measures
Standard measures during the storm were evacuation ahead of landfall, prohibition of crossing flooded roads, and cutting power in submerged areas; afterward, health protocols covered leptospirosis risks, water purification and COVID-19-safe evacuation centers.
Historical Context
Vamco crossed Luzon ten days after Super Typhoon Goni (November 1, 2020) had lashed the same provinces, and it followed the rains of Typhoon Molave. The back-to-back storms of October-November 2020 tested the country’s already strained disaster machinery in a pandemic year, and Vamco went on to strike Vietnam before dissipating.
Challenges and Controversies
The disaster ignited debates over the timing of Magat Dam spillway releases and flood warnings in the Cagayan Valley, the adequacy of Metro Manila’s flood control after a decade of post-Ondoy plans, and officials’ competing narratives over who bore blame for the record flooding.
Related Topic
Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana, 2009)