‘Luis’ leaving, but not quietly

WATER ROAD Residents wade in knee-deep flood in the town of Camiling, Tarlac province, following heavy rains on Friday night. —HOMER TEODORO

Tropical Depression “Luis” exited the Philippine area of responsibility on Friday, but was expected to enhance the southwest monsoon and bring more rains to most of Luzon Island.

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) predicted in its 5 p.m. advisory on Saturday that the southwest monsoon, or “habagat,” will dump more rains over northern Luzon.

The state weather bureau warned residents of the Ilocos region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Batanes, Babuyan Group of Islands, Zambales and Bataan provinces against flash floods and landslides.

Torrential rains since Friday night have already raised water levels of rivers in the Ilocos region, Pangasinan and Tarlac, flooding several villages and damaging major roads and bridges.

Record rain

In Baguio City, weathermen recorded rainfall from Friday to Saturday at 215 millimeters and much of this water cascaded down to the Ilocos region, which had been flooded since Thursday.

A millimeter of rainfall is equivalent to a liter of rainwater on a square meter area, Pagasa said.

The runoff from the highlands was expected to reach the lowlands in two days and may coincide with the projected strengthening into a tropical depression of another low pressure area 910 kilometers northeast of Basco, Batanes.

In the river delta province of Pangasinan, Pagasa had predicted rainfall of 412 mm to 618 mm this month, but it had already reached 400 mm as of Friday, said Pagasa meteorologist Jose Estrada Jr.

Disaster official Romalyn Sarmiento said eight of Calasiao’s villages were still submerged in up to a meter of water.

Critical level

The Marusay River, which is downstream of the Sinocalan River, had a water level of more than 2.4 meters, which Sarmiento said, was above its critical point of 2.2 meters.

The towns of Agno and Bani were still flooded on Saturday even as San Roque Dam continued to release water at the rate of 686 cubic meters per second.

Since Friday, the water level of San Roque Dam had increased by 9 centimeters every hour, suggesting further runoff as the weather improves.

The dam’s water level increased to 277.46 meters above sea level on Saturday from 276.54 masl on Friday while its outlet, the Agno River, can only absorb about 1,400 cms, including water from its tributaries.

Impassable

In neighboring Tarlac, the rains submerged two sections of the Tarlac-

Pangasinan Road in Camiling town, making them impassable to all types of vehicles.

The rains filled up the Camiling River with water overflowing to the villages of Telbang, Bilad, Cacamilingan Sur and Tuec.

Pagasa said cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms also caused by the southwest monsoon would continue to prevail over Metro Manila, the rest of Central Luzon and of Cagayan Valley region, Calabarzon and Mindoro.

The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers, Pagasa added.