‘Quiel’ storms in and out

Typhoon “Quiel” is expected to exit the Philippines Sunday, after slamming already battered northern Luzon with torrential rains and howling winds.

Surpassing the strength of Typhoon “Pedring” which lashed Luzon early last week, Quiel made its presence felt Saturday in northern and Central Luzon, where the still flooded provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga and Pangasinan braced for more rains.

Quiel hit land at 9 a.m. Saturday in Dinapigue, Isabela, the same area where Pedring made landfall on September 27, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

At its peak at 11 a.m., it had maximum sustained winds of 160 kilometers per hour near the center—stronger than Pedring’s 140 kph at its peak—and gustiness of up to 195 kph.

By 5 p.m. it had slowed down slightly to 150 kph with gustiness of 185 kph.

Quiel brought 15-25 millimeters of rain per hour in the areas falling under its 500-km diameter, which included northern and Central Luzon.

Pagasa had warned that the new typhoon could bring more floods and landslides because the ground was still supersaturated from Pedring.

Quiel passed through the provinces of Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, Benguet and La Union, from where it was expected to exit land.

It was already in La Union’s coastal areas as of 4 p.m. Saturday and was expected to be out of the Philippine area of responsibility Sunday.

But Pagasa said Quiel would bring rains over Southern Luzon even on its way out, as it was expected to enhance the southwest monsoon.

Metro Manila and Central Luzon may also expect rains.

Another one coming

Pagasa has its eye on another weather disturbance that may pass the same areas devastated by Quiel and Pedring.

This weather disturbance could enter the Philippine area of responsibility on Monday as a low-pressure area or tropical depression that would be called “Ramon,” according to senior weather forecaster Mario Palafox.

If it intensifies, it may make landfall on Friday. It is expected to take a westward track and pass through the Cagayan and Batanes areas, Palafox said.

He told reporters that this new weather disturbance was 1,500 km east of Luzon as of Saturday, and that it could be one of the two to three storms expected this month.

In September and October, the storms that enter the Philippines usually pass through northern Luzon, Pagasa weather division chief Robert Sawi said.

Philippine storms during the last quarter of the year are usually stronger and tend to hit land, Palafox said.

Fresh devastation

On Saturday in San Antonio village, Ilagan, Isabela, farmer Roderick Capinpin was distraught as he tried to fix the roof of his house that Pedring had blown off.

Capinpin, 48, said Quiel’s passage when Isabela and its residents had yet to recover from the devastation wrought by Pedring would set back their efforts to start anew.

“We don’t know how to rebuild our lives,” said Capinpin, one of the 50,000 farmers in Isabela whose farms were submerged by floods spawned by Pedring.

That typhoon destroyed some P500 million worth of palay and other crops in Isabela.

On Saturday, the trees that survived Pedring’s powerful winds were toppled by Quiel.

So strong were Quiel’s winds that a Cagayan-bound bus tumbled on the highway in Luna, Isabela, and fell into a rice field. But most of the 30 passengers only suffered bruises and were transferred to another bus.

Many parts of Isabela were still without electricity courtesy of Pedring when Quiel came howling.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) recorded Quiel’s first fatality in the Cordillera region—Marcos Jammas, 35, who was killed when a landslide hit the van he was riding in on Halsema Highway in Buguias, Benguet.

Bouncing back

But Isabela Governor Faustino Dy III is hopeful that his province, which was declared under a state of calamity due to Pedring’s impact, would overcome these natural disasters.

“Like in the past, we will recover from these losses,” he said.

Dy said Isabela’s disaster response and rescue teams had been working double-time to rescue residents trapped by the floods in their houses.

Superintendent Jimmy Rivera, Isabela police director, said the province’s rescue teams and personnel were up to the task despite limited equipment.

At least seven gates of Magat Dam in Ramon town have been opened to release water. On Saturday morning, the dam water was 188.91 meters above sea level, below its 193 masl spilling level.

Reports from Isabela’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) said at least 1,300 residents of the coastal towns of Maconacon, Palanan and Divilacan were evacuated starting Friday. In Cauayan City, at least 118 residents were taken to evacuation centers.

Reports also said Quiel’s strong winds felled trees and blew off rooftops in Quirino province.

In Central Luzon, Quiel’s heavy rains hit the still-flooded areas.

The floodwaters, which reached between a meter and 3.048 meters (between 3 and 10 feet) on Thursday and Friday, had been receding slowly in several towns in Bulacan and Pampanga. But on Saturday, residents and officials became resigned to prolonged flooding because of Quiel.

Operators of Angat Dam stopped releasing water on Friday afternoon even when its reservoir level was at more than 3 meters above its critical level.

Rodolfo German, general manager of the Angat River Hydroelectric Power Plant, said National Power Corp. (Napocor) had been directed to suspend water releases. He could not confirm if the order was made on the request of Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado.

The governor had blamed Angat’s water releases for the flooding in his province.

Mercy flights stopped

The two Air Force helicopters being used for rescue efforts by the military’s Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) in Bulacan and Pampanga met with mechanical trouble Saturday.

“We have to wait for the test pilots. With the rains, we have to stop flights in the meantime,” Major General Jessie Dellosa, Nolcom commander, said by phone.

“The rescue operations could not successfully take off because strong winds dragged away the roofs each time we tried to descend. Many of the people on these rooftops also signaled to us that they preferred food [over rescue],” Dellosa said.

The Army’s 703rd Infantry Brigade also canceled its air drop of food and bottled water to eight flooded villages in Masantol, Pampanga, Saturday due to the bad weather, said Colonel Gregorio Catapang, the brigade commander.

Catapang said his troops were using two trucks via the Calumpit route in Bulacan to reach the flooded areas in Hagonoy.

Storm surges

In Zambales, some 170 residents of the coastal villages of Sabang, Lucapon North and Lomboy in Sta. Cruz town were evacuated Saturday, said Graciela Macabare, chief of the Zambales PDRRMC. These villages are vulnerable to storm surges from the West Philippine Sea.

Disaster response officials in Central Luzon said the Pampanga River overflowed as it took water from upstream areas in Nueva Ecija, Aurora and Bulacan, as well as from three damaged dikes in Bulacan.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo met with officials of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to coordinate the disaster responses of local governments.

Robredo said he was in Bulacan on Thursday and Friday to check how local governments were responding to the crisis.

He said Pampanga officials had sought help in evacuating residents of the flood-hit towns of Arayat, Candaba, Mexico, San Luis, San Simon, Apalit, Masantol, Macabebe, Guagua and Sasmuan.

Robredo set a meeting this week with Bulacan officials to review the protocols on the release of water from Angat Dam.

“There are no fixed rules, and adjustments can be made regarding the release of Angat Dam water depending on the prevailing weather conditions,” he said.

San Roque Dam

In Pangasinan, Napocor announced that it had increased the release of water from San Roque Dam to 600 cubic meters per second (cms), to ease its water elevation of 281.59 masl.

But provincial administrator Rafael Baraan said the decision had made residents fear the worst.

Baraan said some of them threatened to march on the facility, with the permission of Governor Amado Espino Jr., should Napocor fail to maintain San Roque’s reservoir level at 280 masl.

Officials of Napocor and the Pangasinan government agreed to set 280 masl as the dam’s maintaining level following the widespread flooding that hit the province due to Typhoon “Pepeng.” The release of huge volumes of water from the dam had been blamed for floods in Pangasinan in October 2009.

Apart from the Agno River itself, San Roque captures water discharged by the Ambuklao and Binga Dams in Benguet, which are operated by SN Aboitiz Power.

There have been no reports of flooding in eastern Pangasinan towns, where the Agno River flows, in spite of the discharges made since Thursday by San Roque Dam.

But sections of Dagupan City and the towns of Calasiao, Laoac and Sta. Barbara were flooded Saturday. With reports from Villamor Visaya Jr., Marla Viray and Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon; and Tonette Orejas, Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Anselmo Roque and Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon

First posted 11:54 pm | Saturday, October 1st, 2011