MANILA – Residents and disaster control officials, particularly in Northern Luzon, prepared for the entry of a super typhoon, which packed center winds of 160 kilometers per hour (kph), as it neared land at a speed of 19 kph as of 6 p.m. Thursday.
Codenamed locally as “Emong,” weathermen predicted that the typhoon would hit land somewhere between the provinces of La Union and Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
Nathaniel Cruz, the chief of the weather forecasting division of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), said that Emong (international codename: Chan-Hum) has intensified into a typhoon from a tropical depression when it was first noted.
So strong is Emong that aside from its center winds of 140 kph, it has gustiness of about 185 kph which raised it to the category of a super typhoon, Cruz pointed out.
The entry of Emong came barely two days after the exit of typhoon “Dante” (international codename: Kujira) after it wreaked havoc in five provinces in the Bicol Region.
The National Disaster Coordinating Center (NDCC) reported that the death toll from the floods and landslides triggered by Dante reached 25, aside from destroying millions of pesos worth of agricultural products, private properties and government infrastructure like roads and bridges.
Most of the casualties perished when massive landslides buried their homes during heavy rains in the town of Magallanes in Sorsogon, the NDCC said.
With its impending arrival, Pagasa’s Cruz said the Emong will be the fifth tropical cyclone to enter the Philippines this year, with typhoon Signal No. 3 raised over the provinces of Western Pangasinan as well as La Union and Ilocos Sur.
Cruz added Signal No. 2 was hoisted over the provinces of Benguet and Ifugao in the Northern Luzon highlands, Ilocos Norte and Isabela in Northern Luzon as well as Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Bataan, Tarlac and Zambales in Central Luzon.
Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces in Southern Luzon like Cavite, Laguna and Batangas were placed under Signal No. 1, Cruz said, but warned that the these areas will experience heavy rains caused by Emong.
Based on the forecast, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered Secretary Gilberto Teodoro of the Department of National Defense, concurrently the chairman of the NDCC, to alert all concerned government agencies to prepare for Emong.
The President arrived at dawn Wednesday from a five-day visit to Egypt and Syria to seek their help in determined efforts to bring peace to strife-torn Mindanao and to encourage their businessmen to invest in the Philippines.
In line with President Arroyo’s order, Teodoro said the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health as well as the military and police have been placed on standby for possible deployment of resources and personnel to the areas to be affected by Emong.
At the same time, the NDCC warned people living along coastlines that they risk being swept away to sea by big waves and that this early, it is best to reinforce houses, especially the roofs.
“If we have to evacuate, let’s do it now,” said an NDCC spokesman. “We don’t want a repeat of what happened in Bicol at the height of typhoon Dante.”
At the same time, the spokesman reiterated their warning against travel by ships and other commercial vessels because of the rough seas.
The spokesman also said warnings and other relevant information have already been forwarded to the regional disaster coordinating centers in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Region, Central Luzon and Metro Manila.
In particular, he said the peace and order councils of local government units are expected to have identified all safe areas that would be used as evacuation centers if the need arises.
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