Powerful ‘Lawin’ slams Cagayan, Isabela

HITTING HARD Packing gusts of 315 kilometers per hour and sustained winds of 225 kph, Supertyphoon “Lawin’’ made landfall on Wednesday night in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela. —NOAA

(UPDATED) Supertyphoon “Lawin” made landfall in Peñablanca town in Southern Cagayan at exactly 11 pm on Wednesday, with winds almost as strong as those of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) that claimed more than 7,350 lives in 2013.

READ: Typhoon ‘Lawin’ makes landfall in Southern Cagayan

Lawin (international name: Haima) packed sustained winds of 225 kilometers per hour and gusts of 315 kph as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Malacañang had earlier directed all government agencies to be on the highest level of preparedness and to take the highest level of precaution.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said the public should not panic and should heed the warnings of authorities. He has been appointed caretaker of the government while President Duterte is on an official visit to China.

Lawin has been described as a monster storm like Yolanda but with a different set of dangers and small mercies, Pagasa said.

The weather bureau noted that Yolanda had stronger winds, triggering storm surges in Eastern Visayas, but passed over land faster.

On the other hand, Lawin was bigger and slower, and was expected to bring heavy rainfall in the next three days in northern Luzon, which could trigger floods and landslides.

In a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Pagasa Administrator Vicente Malano expressed some small mercies. “Today, the winds and the mountains in the Luzon landmass interact. So, the tendency of the typhoon is not to gain strength. Even now, it is weakening. Not abrupt but by 10 percent.”

Highest storm signal

But Malano noted that Lawin’s sustained winds at 225 kph should be taken seriously.

For the first time in Philippine history, Signal No. 5, the highest, was hoisted over Cagayan, Isabela, Kalinga and Apayao provinces on Wednesday as Lawin neared northern Luzon. The signal indicated winds stronger than 220 kph were expected in 12 hours.

“It’s not just heavy rain and strong winds that we [expected]. It’s also floods, landslides and storm surges in coastal areas. Those in these areas, you are in danger. Find safer ground,” disaster information coordinating center director Edgar Allan Tabell of the Department of the Interior and Local Government said hours before Lawin made landfall.

Learning the hard lessons of Yolanda, disaster officials had recommended forced evacuation of residents in flood-prone and risky areas.

Preemptive evacuations had been under way in Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela and Cordillera provinces, Tabell said.

He called on residents to follow directives of local officials.

Five-meter surges

Mahar Lagmay of Project Noah (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards) urged residents of coastal areas to seek higher ground as the weather bureau expected 2- to 5-meter storm surges, particularly in the towns of Santa Ana, Bugue, Gonzaga and Aparri in the northern part of Cagayan.

Lagmay warned communities in the Cordillera and Sierra Madre mountains against landslides.

While the government has made warnings about the dangers of the supertyphoon, the public is expected to respond with the “appropriate action” so that everyone will be safe, he said.

With Lawin’s cloud band of 800 kilometers, more than 10 million people across the northern parts of Luzon are affected, according to the disaster risk management agency.

Nevertheless, the areas directly in the typhoon’s path are not densely populated and are well-drilled in storm preparations.

“We have sufficient preparations. We have sufficient advisories to our local government units for their appropriate response,” said Executive Director Ricardo Jalad of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

Prayer power

In Cagayan’s capital city of Tuguegarao, street vendor Virgilio Gazzingan, 68, was soaking wet as he braved the rains on Wednesday afternoon to walk to Saint Peter Cathedral where he and other Catholics said short prayers hours before Lawin was to make landfall.

“All we need right now is a lot of help from above,” he said in the local language, pushing open his umbrella while coming out the cathedral’s wooden main door.

A woman followed him minutes later. She said she recited “Oratio Imperata,’’ a devotional prayer among Catholics asking to be saved from natural disasters.

On social media, netizens shared nonstop prayers for the safety of residents of areas in Lawin’s path.

First to report evacuations were the towns of Allacapan and Lasam, which lie on the banks of the swollen Cagayan River. Evacuations were conducted in the towns of Divilacan, Maconacon, Palanan and Dinapigue in Isabela and in Cagayan.

Inmates transferred

In Aparri, more than 300 inmates at the town’s district jail were moved to jails in Gattaran and Lallo towns.

In Zambales, fishermen hauled their boats to safe grounds while those who set out to sea had turned back, fearful of Lawin’s wrath.

Eight domestic flights were grounded on Wednesday, while more than 700 passengers were left stranded in ports nationwide as huge waves prevented them from traveling by sea. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND KRISTINE FELISSE MANGUNAY; VILLAMOR VISAYA JR., YOLANDA SOTELO, ARMAND GALANG AND ALLAN MACATUNO; AND AFP/TVJ

RELATED VIDEO