MANILA, Philippines — The irony of it all is not only its name—which means “cruel”—but that it is threatening to strike Luzon so soon after two back-to-back storms ravaged wide areas in the country’s biggest and most populous island.

A tropical cyclone with an international name “Lupit” on Friday intensified into a storm as it entered the Philippine area of responsibility, packing maximum winds of 95 kilometers per hour and gusting up to 120 kph.

The Pagasa weather bureau said the impact of Lupit—officially referred to by Pagasa as “Ramil” after it entered the Philippine weather monitoring jurisdiction—would not be felt until Sunday.

As of Friday evening, the third storm to threaten the country in three weeks was spotted 1,000 km east of Virac and moving west northwest at a fairly fast clip of 35 kph in the general direction of northern and Central Luzon, weather experts said.

“We will not feel the effects yet. We will have good weather until Sunday,” Pagasa weather forecaster Robert Sawi said.

Pagasa Deputy Administrator Nathaniel Cruz tried to ease fears among people living in low-lying areas that they would again be swamped by floods, saying Pagasa would recommend a slow release of water from dams in Luzon.

“Hinay-hinay lang ang release (The release of water will be done gradually). It will not be significant enough to cause any flooding,” he told the Inquirer.

Local officials have said the release of huge amounts of water from several dams worsened the floods in many areas in northern Luzon in the wake of Tropical Storms “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana) and “Pepeng” (Parma) which left hundreds of people dead and devastated agricultural crops and infrastructure.

Quick exit

Pagasa experts expressed hope that the new storm would make a quick exit out of the country.

Jun Paat of Pagasa’s Hydrometeorological Division (Hydromet) said that if Ramil should make more than one pass over any area in the country—as Pepeng did—there could be heavy rainfall and possibly fresh flooding in northern Luzon.

“If (it) is of the same strength and track as Pepeng and it becomes stationary, then definitely we would have to release water from dams,” Paat said.

He said the water at the Angat and San Roque dams was still above-normal levels.

Above normal levels

Angat is currently one meter above its normal level at 212 meters above sea level, while San Roque is 4.7 meters above its normal level of 280 meters above sea level.

Paat said that Angat Dam had three gates open, releasing 400 cubic meters per second, while San Roque had two gates open, releasing 600 cubic meters per second.

He said that Pampanga River can still accommodate 2,000 cubic meters of water per second and the Agno River 600 cubic meters without overflowing to cause heavy flooding.

Not much rainfall

Earlier, just before Pagasa announced that Ramil had entered the Philippine area of responsibility, Sawi said that the storm could hit northern Luzon or veer north toward Taiwan.

He also said that from current weather satellite data, Ramil did not seem to have much rainfall.

But this could change since the storm was still over water and could accumulate more moisture.

Pagasa said that until early Sunday, or before Ramil’s impact is felt, Luzon would experience mostly cloudy weather with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms.

The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and thunderstorms, it said.

Not taking any chances, the National Disaster Coordinating Council on Friday asked residents in flood- and landslide-prone areas in the Visayas, southern and northern Luzon to seek safer ground even if Ramil was still about 1,000 kilometers away.

The NDCC directed its warning to residents in the already storm-battered northern Luzon.

Local civil defense officials have also been advised to immediately determine possible evacuation centers in their areas, the NDCC spokesperson, Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres Jr., said.

“These are preemptive measures. It may or may not happen. But the thing is, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Torres said.

Resources spread too thin

Torres appealed to the public to heed instructions from local officials as NDCC resources had already been spread too thin in the wake of the two recent storms.

Ondoy, which dumped a month’s worth of rain on Sept. 26 over Metro Manila, left a vast swath of the metropolis under water and the government desperately scrambling to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of people.

Pepeng buffeted northern and Central Luzon, sinking villages, triggering landslides and killing more than 300.

“Government capability has been spread too thinly in a span of two weeks, so we encourage individual effort to be prepared for this incoming calamity,” Torres said.

Bicol prepared

In the Bicol region, the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo) has been put on alert again.

“We are now on preparedness status and awaiting the arrival of additional rubber boats to boost the province’s existing 12 units spread across the province,” Apsemo plans and operations chief Abundio Nuñez said.

Nuñez said the people who would man the boats had also been placed on on-call status.

“Although the Pagasa tracking models point to Central and north Luzon (as possible target areas of Ramil), it is better that we are always prepared as the landfall is expected by Oct. 21,” Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said.

“I ask everyone, especially under the leadership of our new bishop, Bishop Joel Baylon, and our spiritual leader Bishop Lucilo Quiambao, to pray the Oratio Imperata,” Salceda appealed.

The “Oratio Imperata For Deliverance From Calamities” is a special prayer asking God for protection from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.

Learning from experience

“Learning from experiences, Albay has concocted a new motto: Let us pray, Let us prepare, Let us help, Let us learn, then Let us blame,” Salceda said.