Leyte under signal no. 1 due to ‘Amang’
MANILA, Philippines – The weather bureau has raised storm signal no. 1 over eight areas in Luzon and the Visayas, including Leyte where Pope Francis is scheduled to visit on Saturday.
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) raised the warning early Friday as tropical storm “Amang” (international name “Mekkhala”) moved closer to Eastern Visayas.
Pope Francis is set to fly to Leyte Saturday morning and will say Mass at the Tacloban City airport. Later, he will go on a motorcade to the Palo cathedral and have lunch with survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda.
Pagasa said the storm would hit Northern Samar on Saturday afternoon, around the time the Roman Catholic pontiff is set to leave Leyte through the Tacloban City airport.
Signal No. 1 was raised in the following areas:
Luzon: Masbate, including Ticao Island, and Camarines Sur.
Visayas: Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Biliran and Leyte.
These areas were alerted against possible flashfloods and landslides.
“In the next 6 hours, there is a possibility of raising Public Storm Warning Signal No. 1 over Camarines Norte, Marinduque and Romblon,” Pagasa said.
Heavy to intense rains are seen within the 300 kilometer diameter of Amang.
The “Bicol Region and Eastern Visayas will have occasional rains with gusty winds. Central Visayas and Caraga will experience cloudy skies with light to moderate rains while the rest of Visayas and Mndanao will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rains,” Pagasa said.
Thunderstorms are likely to occur over these areas, it added.
The storm was last observed 575 kilometers east of Borongan City in Eastern Samar, with maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of up to 90kph.
It is moving west at 19 kph.
Fisherfolks and those with small seacraft were also advised not to venture out over the seaboards of Northern and Central Luzon and the eastern seaboard of Southern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Ocean waves may reach up to 6.5 meters, Pagasa said.
In Luzon, Cagayan Valley and Cordillera will have cloudy skies with light rains due to the northeast monsoon.
Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon will be partly cloudy to at times cloudy with isolated light rains.
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