In July 2024 the habagat, enhanced by Typhoon Carina, put much of Metro Manila underwater and pushed the Marikina River near Ondoy levels. What happened, and what it means for choosing where to live.
In late July 2024, large parts of Metro Manila went underwater again. The cause was the habagat, the southwest monsoon, supercharged by Typhoon Carina (international name Gaemi). Carina never even made landfall in the Philippines, yet its outer rain bands dumped more than 300 mm of rain on the capital region in a day, according to news reports.
On July 24, 2024, the Marikina River rose past 20 meters, close to the level it reached during Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009, which remains the benchmark for catastrophic Metro Manila flooding. The highest (third) alarm was raised and forced evacuations began. The National Capital Region was placed under a state of calamity, and tens of thousands were moved to evacuation centers. Reporting put the nationwide toll at at least 13 dead and more than 600,000 displaced.
The hardest-hit cities were familiar names: Marikina, plus Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela, the low-lying northern cities often grouped as CAMANAVA.
None of this was random. The areas that flooded worst share two traits: low elevation and nearness to a river or the bay. Marikina sits in a river valley. CAMANAVA sits low and close to Manila Bay. When enough rain falls, water collects exactly where the terrain says it will.
That is the quiet point behind a dramatic event. The flooding followed the same geography the hazard maps already describe: low ground, near water, inside known flood zones. You can read how we handle these signals on the flood layer brief and the elevation and slope brief.
A house can look perfectly fine on a dry day in March and still sit in the path of the next Carina. The only way to know before you buy is to check the address against the flood zones, the elevation, and the distance to the nearest river, the same factors that decided who flooded in 2024.
CheckHazard does not replace a professional geotechnical or engineering survey. The flood reading is preliminary screening built on public DOST-NOAH data; event figures reflect public news reporting at the time.