When to suspend classes during typhoons? Check new Pagasa website

Want to know the impact of natural disasters on individual homes or schools?

You can go to the new website that the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) launched on Monday.

Landrico Dalida, Jr. project director, said www.bagong.pagasa.gov.ph offered new features, including user-friendly interface that was easy to navigate and could be understood by any age group.

With digital mapping technology, government agencies can estimate the number of damaged houses in case of a typhoon or other weather disturbances, Dalida said.

“If one is a school official who wants to know whether or not he needs to suspend classes, all he has to do is go to the website, check out the rainfall outlook, and from there, he can make his decision,” he said.

Pagasa launched the website as continuous rains poured over Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon after Typhoon “Domeng” (international name: Maliksi) exited the Philippine area of responsibility on Sunday.

Classes were suspended in Metro Manila and other areas, and the number of fatalities from the inclement weather rose to three.

A still unidentified child and a man were believed to have drowned in Rizal province, police said on Monday.

On Saturday, a construction laborer in Dasmariñas City in Cavite province went missing after he was swept by strong river current.

The “Bagong Pagasa” website was established through a P17-million funding from the Department of Science and Technology, under a grant-in-aid project of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

The website can also serve as an aid for farmers in managing their crops, or for seafarers, who want to know whether it is safe to sail, Dalida said.

With a digital representation of the path of a typhoon over an area, disaster officials can better prepare based on the expected number of people that will be affected.

They can better plan the prepositioning of relief goods, Dalida said.

Pagasa officials, however, admit that the website was a “work in progress.”

During testing on Monday, some of the features returned erroneous responses. —With reports from Madonna T. Virola and Maricar Cinco