MANILA, Philippines – Cagayan and Batanes provinces and nearby islands were placed under public storm warning signal number one on Monday as typhoon “Henry” (international name: Matmo) continued to bring rains over the rest of the country.
Even as it continued to move towards extreme north Luzon, Henry enhanced the southwest monsoon (habagat) to bring moderate to occasionally heavy rains over Aurora province, Cagayan Valley, Mimaropa and Bicol regions and parts of Visayas.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), typhoon Henry will exit the Philippine area of responsibility by Wednesday without making landfall.
Packing winds at 130 to 160 kilometers per hour while moving northwest at 20 kph, Henry is expected to be 220 kilometers east of Basco, Batanes, by Tuesday morning.
It is expected to be near Taiwan by Wednesday morning.
On Monday, as Pagasa raised public storm warning signal number one over the Batanes group of islands and Cagayan province including the Babuyan and Calayan group of islands, it warned of possible flashfloods and landslides in affected areas. It also warned seafarers against venturing out the eastern seaboard of Luzon and Visayas as well as the northern and eastern seaboard of Mindanao.
The eighth storm to hit the country this year, typhoon Henry entered the Philippine area of responsibility last July 18 on the heels of typhoon Glenda (Rammasun), which battered Luzon and parts of the Visayas.
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