The tail-end of a cold front over extreme Northern Luzon is bringing cloudy skies and rains to the Batanes and Calayan groups of islands, and Cagayan province, the state weather bureau said on Saturday.
A thunderstorm broke the summer heat Friday, bringing heavy rains to a large swatch of Metro Manila. Weathermen said the thunderstorm was precipitated by the convergence of warm easterly winds from the Pacific with cool northeasterly winds from Taiwan.
Traffic remains tight in several areas in Metro Manila even as flood waters caused by the downpour Friday afternoon have subsided, an official of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said.
The tail end of a cold front over extreme northern Luzon will briefly bring rains over large parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila and the Southern Tagalog region, the state weather bureau said Thursday.
A banana plantation security guard who just wanted to rescue his co-employees from the floods that hit Kapalong, Davao del Norte, drowned early Thursday while hundreds of other terrified villagers fled from the deluge that also inundated areas in Talaingod town in the same province.
“Don’t blame poor Filipinos for what’s wrong with the weather,” Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said as he lashed at critics who blamed illegal logging for the worst flooding that inundated some areas in Davao in water for the whole week.
Rescuers continued the search for two people who were reported missing in the massive flooding that has temporarily displaced at least 40,000 people in two southern Mindanao provinces.
One person was killed and over 8,000 people have fled their homes due to flooding in Davao del Norte on Sunday, officials said.
Over 1,000 people have evacuated to the University of Mindanao gym as the entire Gravahan village near the Davao River has been submerged in floodwater since 2 a.m. Sunday, said barangay kagawad (village councilor) Joseph Encabo.
The Philippine Coast Guard has placed all its units in the Visayas and Mindanao under “full alert” as it also ordered them to brace for the heavy rains and possible flash floods that might result from the first weather disturbance to hit the country this year.
Rains are expected in parts of the country even as tropical storm Nina exited the Philippine territory, the state weather bureau said Friday.
It’s “dam if you do, dam if you don’t.” The extreme weather has put dam operators in a bind. If they release too much water, communities downstream would be inundated; if too little, the dams may break.
Classes were suspended from the kindergarten to high school levels in private and public schools in Quezon City due to heavy rains, which caused flooding in some areas.
