Gov’t agencies ready for arrival of ‘Dodong’

DISASTER response agencies were placed on high alert as powerful Typhoon “Dodong” (international name: Noul) churned toward northern Luzon, packing 160-kilometer-per-hour winds and threatening “heavy to intense” rainfall when it hits land on Sunday morning.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) on Saturday raised Public Storm Warning Signal No. 3 in the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela and northern Aurora, where Dodong was expected to make landfall.

Esperanza Cayanan, Pagasa weather division chief, said during a predisaster risk assessment at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) yesterday that Dodong had slowed in its approach (from 20 to 18 kph) and was moving west northwest.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the storm was monitored 350 km east of Infanta, Quezon. It is forecast to hit the coast of the Isabela-Cagayan area, cross the Sierra Madre mountain range, and exit via Aparri, Cagayan, by Sunday afternoon. It could be out of the Philippine area of responsibility by Tuesday morning and veer north toward southern Japan.

Alexander Pama, NDRRMC head, said Dodong’s intense rainfall within a 100- to 200-km diameter area could topple power lines, uproot trees, blow roofs off thatched houses and damage crops like rice and corn.

The weather bureau raised storm alerts in 19 areas of Luzon, warning that strong winds and intense rain could produce a 2.5meter-high storm surge along the northeastern coast and trigger landslides in mountainous areas.

Storm Signal No. 2 was raised in the Calayan and Babuyan group of islands, Apayao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, the rest of Aurora, Polillo Island, Catanduanes and Quirino.

Storm Signal No. 1 was raised for Batanes, Abra, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Benguet, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay and Sorsogon.

Storm signals in Albay and Sorsogon, however, have since been lifted.

The NDRRMC Operations Center has been on red alert since Friday afternoon. Response clusters were activated and regional of- fices have prepositioned food packs, medicines and logistics in areas projected to be affected by the typhoon.

Thousands of people in northeastern Luzon were urged to evacuate less than 24 hours before the forecasted landfall of Dodong.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines alerted its major services for possible manpower and logistics support to disaster response agencies.

Agencies attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications were directed to issue relevant advisories and prepare to accommodate stranded passengers. Medical response teams were activated by the Department of Health which also prepositioned medicines in possibly affected regions.

“What is in place is estimated to be more or less enough but we are ready to provide augmentation when necessary,” Pama said.

The Coast Guard said it had shut down ferry services in threatened areas, leaving nearly 6,000 commuters and hundreds of vehicles stranded at ports.

Meanwhile, more than 11,000 people, many of them children, were moved to temporary shelters in two towns around Mt. Bulusan which erupted twice last week, according to Raben Dimaano, a disaster official in Sorsogon.

Although there has been no volcanic quake monitored in Sorsogon since the May 6 eruption of Bulusan, Alert Level 1 remained hoisted in surrounding areas for possible cold lava flows brought about by heavy and prolonged rains, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.