Pagasa: Rainy season next week

THE rainy season will start in the last week of May or in mid-June, the Mactan office of the state weather bureau Pagasa said yesterday.

The presence of easterly winds means that the summer season is still here, said Acting Pagasa Mactan chief Alfredo Quiblat, who noted the absence of southwestern winds.

The rainy season is official when the country experiences 25 mm of rainfall within five days.

Almost daily rains are being experienced in Metro Cebu.

Pagasa typically declares the start of the rainy season from mid-May to early June.

Clearing operations are ongoing to remove settlers from rivers and other flood and landslide prone areas, said Alvin Santillan, chief of theThe Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Creek settlers should evacuate if rainfall lasts more than one hour, he said.

Volunteer rescue teams from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF), Red Cross, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and others are standing by, he said.

A Pagasa bulletin said the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) was still affecting Southern Mindanao, bringing cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and thunderstorms over much of the island.

Zamboanga Peninsula and the provinces of Sarangani and Davao del Sur will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rain showers and thunderstorms, it said.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country will be partly cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms mostly in the western section.Correspondents Christine Emily L. Pantaleon and Jose Santino Bunachita with an Inquirer report