|
By Angelo S. Samonte Reporter and Rhaydz B.
Barcia, Correspondent
President Gloria Arroyo ordered the National
Disaster Coordinating Council to ensure the safety of communities on
the path of Typhoon Frank, which struck central Philippines on
Friday and is threatening the Bicol region today.
The President cancelled her trip to Capiz
province Friday, because of torrential rain and strong wind caused
by the typhoon.
Frank, a powerful tropical storm, smashed into
Samar Friday, packing winds of up to 140 kilometers per hour.
Residents there braced for flooding, landslides and big waves, said
officials of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa). There were no
immediate reports of casualties or damage as the storm scythed
northwest across Samar, an impoverished island of 1.5 million
people.
The storm’s eye was 60 kilometers away from
the island’s main city, Calbayog, at 4 p.m., weather bureau
officials said.
Frank was packing maximum sustained winds of 120
kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 150
kilometers per hour. The storm is forecast to pass along the eastern
side of central and northern Philippines over the next three days.
The weather bureau said the typhoon was expected
to enhance the southwest monsoon and bring rains over Southern Luzon
and the rest of Visayas and Mindanao.
On Friday, signal number 3 was raised in the
Samar provinces, while signal number 2 was raised in Catanduanes,
Sorsogon, Leyte provinces, Biliran Island, Dinagat Island and
Siargao Island.
In the Bicol region, close to 200,000 people
were slated for evacuation as the typhoon approached. The Albay
Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council ordered the mandatory
evacuation of more than 30,000 families or 172,802 people.
The typhoon made landfall over Eastern Samar on
Friday and crossed Northern Samar Friday night. Authorities have
issued a major storm alert for the whole island of Samar, with lower
level alerts going out for surrounding islands and provinces.
Headed for Albay
Typhoon Frank will be in Albay’s vicinity
today, and residents there are concerned about the likelihood of
lahar, flash floods, landslides and storm surges in the coastal
villages.
“We need to evacuate 32,000 families as
preemptive measures for safety,” Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay told
The Manila Times. Classes in all levels were suspended Friday.
“We need to execute our emergency contingency
plan to attain the zero casualty goal. So we’re enforcing the
mandatory evacuation of residents living within the mountains and
steep slopes, threatened by mudslides, flooding and storm surges,”
Salceda said.
The Albay Provincial Safety Management Office
reported that about 35,766 families are threatened by mudslides in
the towns of Guinobatan, Camalig, Daraga, Bacacay, Santo Domingo and
Malilipot, as well as the cities of Legazpi, Ligao and Tabaco.
Landslides also threaten some 40,173 families
from 116 villages, and 33,179 families are threatened by storm
surges across Albay province.
Cedric Daep, chief of the management office,
told The Times that the movement or evacuation process of nearly
200,000 people should be done before twilight to ensure the safety
of the people.
-- With AFP and Xinhua
|
