LEGAZPI CITY–The Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo) has ordered the evacuation of at least 78,000 families in high-risk areas across the province due to possible heavy rains that will accompany Tropical Storm “Amang” as it gets close to Albay pre-dawn Sunday.
Apsemo head Cedric Daep said all families in areas prone to flood, landslide, lahar flow and tidal surges would be evacuated before sundown, or at most by 6 p.m. today.
Daep said they were expecting to evacuate at least 78,000 to 120,000 families, or more than 468,000 persons, from 15 towns and 3 cities of the province.
Daep said Governor Joey Salceda, as head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC), has placed the entire province under preparedness status since January 16 and ordered the preemptive evacuation of residents should a threat becomes imminent.
“Once more, again and again, whether low-pressure area or supertyphoon, the goal of Albay is ‘zero casualty,’” stressed the governor.
Ariel Zamudio of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in Legazpi said that based on their tracking, if Amang would make landfall in Borongan City this afternoon, it would be 20 kilometers east northeast of Masbate City, or closest to Albay, at around 2 a.m. Sunday.
The storm, packing maximum winds of 100 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 130 kph, was estimated to be 190 km east southeast of Borongan City, Eastern Samar, Pagasa said in its 10 a.m. bulletin.
Amang was moving northwest at 17 kph and estimated to be in the vicinity of Legazpi City by Sunday morning, 50 km northeast of Baler, Aurora, by Monday morning and 235 km northeast of Aparri, Cagayan, by Tuesday morning.
Pagasa has hoisted Storm Signal No. 2 in Sorsogon, Masbate, including Ticao Island, all in Bicol; and in the Eastern Visayas provinces of Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Leyte and Biliran.
Under Storm Signal No. 1 are:
Luzon–Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Burias Island in Masbate, Quezon, including Polillo Island, Laguna, Batangas, Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, and Romblon
Visayas–Southern Leyte, Northern Cebu, Cebu City, Bantayan Island, Camotes Island, Northern Iloilo, northern part of Negros Occidental, Capiz and Aklan
Mindanao–Dinagat Island