Pepito weakens but impact still ‘massive’

DEFYING ADVERSITY A multipurpose covered court in Tambongon village in the municipality of Viga, Catanduanes, is left without its roof after Super Typhoon Pepito slammed into the island province on Saturday night. By Sunday, however, residents were promptly picking up the pieces, restoring order right after the onslaught of the storm. —Photos from MDRRMO Viga Catanduanes Facebook page and Catanduanes Police Provincial Office Facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — Super Typhoon Pepito (international name: Man-yi) weakened slightly after hitting land in the town of Panganiban in Catanduanes province on Saturday night to arrive over the coastal waters of Camarines Norte province by 8 a.m., weather officials said.

“Pepito is forecast to slightly weaken as a typhoon prior to its second landfall,” weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said. “Significant weakening will occur during the passage of this tropical cyclone over mainland Luzon today.”

READ: Pepito to exit PAR on Nov. 18

Still, it warned of considerable damage by the storm and urged precautionary measures.

Packing winds of 185 kilometers per hour, the storm made a second landfall over the vicinity of Dipaculao town in Aurora province at 3:20 p.m. on Sunday, bringing intense to torrential rainfall that Pagasa said would cause widespread flooding and landslides over the provinces of Aurora, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao and Pangasinan from Sunday to Monday afternoon.

More than 18,000 residents were evacuated in Aurora province hours before the storm’s second landfall.

The weather bureau’s 8 p.m. bulletin tracked the storm at Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya. By then it had weakened into a typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 165 km/h.

The storm level, however, was only brought down a notch to Signal No. 4.

Pagasa on Sunday said Pepito is expected to exit the landmass of Luzon by late Sunday night or early Monday morning, during which it will also significantly weaken due to land interaction.

It will then continue moving west northwestward and leave the Philippine area of responsibility by Monday morning or afternoon.

Ariel Nepomuceno, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, said on Sunday that despite the Bicol region being the center of typhoons in recent weeks, it did not suffer any major damage from Pepito so far, specifically the provinces of Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur and Albay.

However, he noted that a declaration of state of calamity over Luzon is not yet off the table, depending on the aftermath of the latest weather disturbance to hit the country.

A scenario he was seeing is that only some parts of Luzon will be placed under a state of calamity.

“Right now, we have 11 out of 16 municipalities in Catanduanes that endured the massive effects of Pepito,” Nepomuceno said.

“We are expecting that reports of damage will come in soon and based on the initial, there were commercial establishments and houses that incurred heavy damage,” he also said.

“We feared that the worst may have come for the whole Bicol since most of the storms passed there and many [residents] are still in evacuation centers,” Nepomuceno said in a radio interview.

“But so far, there was no massive damage in Bicol… that’s what we have been worrying about since Saturday,” he added.

In the next two weeks, Nepomuceno said the country is not expecting any storms, giving the national and local governments a window for rebuilding.

“We have at least two weeks to recover based on what the weather bureau told us. Although, we pray for more time that there won’t be any storm soon,” Nepomuceno said.

Appeal for help

Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua has appealed for help for his constituents whose houses were destroyed or were trapped in isolated towns after Pepito made landfall in the island province on Saturday night.

“The need for food packs is critical, as our funds have already been depleted from responding to previous typhoons,” he said.

He said they also urgently need construction materials such as GI sheets, plywood, nails and wood to rebuild homes.

The hardest-hit areas remained inaccessible due to landslides in Baras and Gigmoto, while telecommunications and power lines had been knocked out, complicating rescue and relief efforts.

Christian De Jesus, information officer of Panganiban, said the powerful gusts of wind ripped off roofs and toppled trees and electric poles well until midnight when Pepito hit his town.

De Jesus recalled that “the wind whistled loudly, with repeated sounds of huge thunder” that somehow sounded like “nonstop plane takeoffs.”

Homes wiped out

Shara Mae Manlangit, 27, a resident and councilor at Barangay Tambogñon, Viga, said the fierce winds felt as early as 6 p.m. on Saturday persisted until 2 a.m., wiping out houses made of light materials near the coasts.

“The tornado-like winds battered our house, with water seeping in through the windows,” Manlangit said in a phone interview on Sunday, but noted that the waist-deep floodwater started to subside on Sunday morning.

Luis Surtida Jr., chief of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said that as of Sunday, 18,554 families, or 66,579 individuals, have been evacuated and are currently residing in temporary shelters.

Landslide, storm surge

In Albay, heavy rainfall triggered a landslide in Pintor village in Polangui town on Saturday night, blocking roads.

In Tiwi town, another landslide in Barangay Dapdap rendered roads impassable for four-wheeled vehicles.

In Caramoan town in Camarines Sur, some villages were still flooded while tree branches covered major roads.

In Iriga City, Camarines Sur, spillways overflowed, making roads impassable, city administrator Maharlika Ramon Oaferina said in a phone interview on Sunday.

In Sorsogon, a storm surge caused flooding in the coastal village of Tinago in Juban on Saturday night, although the residents were evacuated earlier. —with reports from Gillian Villanueva, Dempsey Reyes, Michael B. Jaucian, Ma. April Mier-Manjares, Clarence Roi Gillego, Joanna Rose Aglibot, Villamor Visaya Jr., Armand Galang, and Joey Gabieta