Expect stormy weather in next 2 days—weather bureau

MANILA, Philippines—Typhoon Pedring whipped Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon with gusty winds and heavy rains, plunging some areas in darkness, triggering flash floods and mudslides, swelling rivers and spawning storm surges in the seas off Luzon.

Pedring, having a diameter of 650 kilometers, cut a wide swath of destruction, unleashing powerful winds and bursts of heavy rain, as it barreled through northern Luzon from Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon.

“We should expect the same stormy weather in the next two days,’’ Robert Sawi, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s (Pagasa) weather division, told reporters during a briefing before noon on Tuesday. “For as long as the typhoon is there, we’ll continue to have heavy rains.”

The typhoon whipped up gusts of wind of up to 130 kilometers per hour, and sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour in Baler, Aurora, and dumped heavy rainfall, from 121 millimeters in Quezon City, to 136.4 mm in Virac, Catanduanes, to 148.2 mm in Tanay, Rizal, Pagasa said.

The weather stations in San Jose, Mindoro, also recorded heavy rainfall of 97.6 mm; Sangley Point in Cavite, 83.4 mm; Port Area in Manila, 82.8 mm; and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, 75.4 mm, it said.

At its peak, Pedring packed maximum winds of 140 kph and gusted up to 170 kph.

But after hitting land between Aurora and Isabela at around 4 a.m. Tuesday and crossing the rugged terrain of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, the typhoon slightly weakened to 120 kph in maximum winds, and 150 kph in gustiness at around 10 a.m.

The powerful winds felled trees around the metropolis, and spawned storm surges in Manila Bay that flooded buildings and establishments on Roxas Boulevard in Manila and Pasay City, while the rainfall caused the Marikina River to swell, and triggered pockets of flooding.

The typhoon brought back memories of storm “Ondoy,’’ which dumped heavy rain in the metropolis spawning flooding that killed close to 300 persons and left tens of thousands homeless on Sept. 26, 2009.

Pagasa blamed the “combined effect’’ of the typhoon and the southwest monsoon for the powerful, howling winds and bursts of heavy rain over the metropolis.

“The monsoon is packing winds of 65 kph. It’s as strong as that of a storm,’’ Sawi said before noon.

At around 10 a.m., Pedring hogged Mt. Province, hovering some 100 km of Baguio City, before swirling west northwestward at 19 kph toward La Union and West Philippine Sea. It’s forecast to exit the Philippine area of responsibility on Wednesday.

Pagasa forecast stormy weather in areas lying in the path of the typhoon and raised appropriate storm signals.

As early as Tuesday noon, Pagasa warned of floods and landslides in mountainous areas in most parts of Luzon, and storm surges in coastal areas of northern and central Luzon, as well as continuous monsoon rains and gusty winds over Southern Luzon, including Metro Manila, and Western Visayas within Tuesday.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the weather bureau continued to open the gates of Ipo Dam in Bulacan since the water had risen to 100.50 meters, exceeding its spilling level of 100.20 meters, as well as those of Binga dam in Mt. Province and Ambuklao dam in Benguet because their waters had risen close to their spilling levels of 575 m and 752 m, respectively.

The weather bureau has also been monitoring the possible entry of another cyclone into the PAR next week, Science Undersecretary and PAGASA supervisor Graciano Yumul said.