From supertyphoon strength, “Hanna” has weakened as it neared extreme northern Luzon on Wednesday although it was still powerful enough to batter Batanes and surrounding islands and trigger heavy monsoon rains over the rest of Luzon.
Typhoon Hanna (international name: Soudelor) packed maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour (as of 11 p.m. Wednesday), from 215 kph early on the same day, and gusts up to 210 kph, from 250 kph early in the day, while about 1,060 km east of Basco, Batanes, according to the state weather bureau.
By the categorization of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Hanna fell short of supertyphoon strength of at least 220 kph maximum sustained winds.
“It has weakened since yesterday. We saw in our analysis that it has already reached its peak strength (215 kph) maximum sustained winds,” said the Pagasa weather division chief, Esperanza Cayanan.
While the typhoon will not make landfall, Pagasa warned this would trigger monsoon rains over northern and western Luzon starting Friday morning until Wednesday next week.
State meteorologist Chris Perez said the typhoon, which entered the Philippine area of responsibility early Wednesday, enhanced the southwest monsoon over the Visayas, Mindanao and Palawan, which had been experiencing rains the past several days.
Exits Saturday
On Friday and Saturday, Hanna will trigger heavy monsoon rains over northern Luzon while the weather will clear over the Visayas and Mindanao, Perez said.
Even after the typhoon exits the Philippine area of responsibility on Saturday, Pagasa warned of frequent rains over the western section of Luzon, particularly Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Ilocos region and the provinces of Zambales and Mindoro from Saturday until Wednesday.
“While the typhoon will not make landfall, we can expect monsoon rains,” Perez said.
Hanna is expected to traverse the seas off extreme northern Luzon on its way to Taiwan.
Pagasa said the typhoon would dump moderate to heavy rains over its 600-km diameter.
“It will directly affect Batanes on Friday and Saturday and will enhance monsoon rains over the western section of Luzon and possibly the Visayas,” said meteorologist Samuel Duran.
By Thursday morning, the center of the typhoon will be 850 km east of Itbayat, Batanes, and 375 km east northeast of Itbayat on Friday.
Bicol alert
Expecting moderate to heavy rains, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in the Bicol region was placed on blue alert, meaning all response agencies, trucks and equipment were on standby as the typhoon was expected to bring moderate to heavy rains in the region.
OCD Director Bernardo Rafael Alejandro IV said his agency would conduct predisaster risk assessment and inventory of relief supplies in case people needed to be evacuated.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda issued an advisory to all city and municipal disaster councils to be on alert 24/7 and to closely monitor updates from Pagasa and their respective disaster relief councils.
Maj. Angelo Guzman, spokesman of the military’s Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), said all disaster response units in Calabarzon and Bicol had been ordered to prepare for any emergency.
“Even if the path of the typhoon is outside of Solcom’s jurisdiction, we’re not taking any chances,” Guzman said.
5 dead
At least five people have died and three others missing as flooding hit the cities of Malaybalay and Valencia in Bukidnon, forcing 400 residents to flee, OCD chief Ana Cañeda told Agence France-Presse.
Swollen rivers burst their banks and unleashed waist-deep floods on shanty towns in the two cities.
Heavy rains have swamped the region since late last month and the government warned residents of vulnerable areas, including riverbank shanties, to evacuate, but some refused, Cañeda said.
“They may not have relatives to go to and don’t want to go to the evacuation centers so they… (chose) to sit it out,” Cañeda said, adding that some had refused to leave their properties unguarded.
Rescuers recovered the corpses of five shantytown residents on Wednesday when monsoon rains let up for the day, but three other residents remain missing, she added.
Cañeda said the floods were brought on by a seasonal monsoon and were not related to Typhoon Hanna.
Landslides
In Kidapawan City, the Public Safety Office on Wednesday recommended the forced evacuation of some 50 families from the upland village of Ilomavis threatened by landslides because of heavy rains.
Psalmer Bernalte, chair of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said they had documented at least six landslide-prone areas in Ilomavis.
“We also recorded a landslide along the national highway leading to Lake Agco in the foot of Mount Apo,” he said.
Under the proposal, the evacuated families, consisting of Manobo “lumad,” will be housed in the village’s covered court.
“Meantime that the weather condition is unfavorable, they will temporarily stay in the designated evacuation sites, identified by the village council,” he said.
Natividad Ocon, the city schools division assistant superintendent, said classes had been suspended in Ilomavis. Three other villages had requested suspension of classes.
“Teachers and students have difficulties in going to school due to the bad weather condition and fear that they might be stranded due to landslides particularly, along their way to school,” she said.
In Maguindanao, some 2,000 families were affected by floods triggered by the bad weather but no evacuation had been reported so far, according to officials.
“Their communities were flooded but they preferred to stay since water normally receded after an hour or two when rain stops,” said Myrna Jo Henry, spokesperson of the Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
She said provincial disaster officials were now monitoring 17 low-lying towns of Maguindanao and were preparing evacuation procedures.
Bernalte said officials were also studying the possibility of evacuating more people from landslide-prone villages.
Mayor Joseph Evangelista announced that the city government would procure four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to strengthen its public safety campaign.
In a post on his Facebook page, Evangelista said the city peace and order council had passed a resolution for the purchase of the UAVs, which costs P50,000 each.
“This drone can also provide us with assessment of areas that would be difficult to reach. It can also hasten the delivery of services to affected communities,” he said.
Evangelista said the drones could also be used for such purposes as traffic monitoring and strengthening of peace and order.–With reports from AFP; Mar S. Arguelles and Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon; and Williamor Magbanua and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
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