‘Odette’ makes 3rd landfall in Liloan; keeps strength as it crosses Southern Leyte

‘Odette’ makes 3rd landfall in Liloan; keeps strength as it crosses Southern Leyte

MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Odette maintained its power as it traversed Southern Leyte from late Thursday afternoon, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.

The state weather service’s latest updates showed that Odette’s eye was over Liloan town in Southern Leyte as of 4:50 p.m., still packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 270 kph.  Odette was moving westward at a speed of 30 kph.

It has so far hit land thrice – first in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte, at 1:30 p.m., then in Cagdianao, Dinagat Islands at 3:10 p.m., and then Liloan town.

According to Pagasa, the tropical cyclone may make more landfalls in the coming hours especially over the southern portion of Southern Leyte.

Regarding the forecast track, Odette is seen to continue moving west and pass southern portions of Central and Western Visayas, particularly Bohol, Cebu, and the Negros island from Thursday night to early Friday morning, and then possibly emerge over Sulu Sea before starting to take the west-northwest direction towards the northern part of Palawan.

Pagasa, however, said Odette may weaken due to land interaction although it is still expected to remain a typhoon-category cyclone over its stay inside the Philippine area of responsibility.

As of this writing, the following areas were under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 4:

Visayas

Mindanao

Pagasa explained that areas under Signal No. 4 may experience “very destructive typhoon-force winds” within the next 12 hours.

Meanwhile, the following areas were declared under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 3:

Visayas

Mindanao

Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 2:

Luzon

Northern Samar

Mindanao

On the other hand, areas placed under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 1 were the following:

Luzon

Mindanao

KGA

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