TOKYO -- Part of growing up on the outskirts of Manila, 25-year-old Mitzi Jonelle Tan says, is living with the "very real" fear of drowning in your own bedroom.
In the fall of 2009, Typhoon Ketsana struck Tan's home. She went without electricity or clean water for several days. Floodwater reached just beneath her knees, and she had to bail water out of her bedroom. "But we were fortunate because our city happened to be located higher from the ground."
