‘Ramil’ spares N. Luzon

10/25/2009

Northern Luzon breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as typhoon “Ramil,” now downgraded to a tropical storm, veered away from the country which is still dealing with the devastation from two previous deadly typhoons.

After keeping much of Luzon on edge for over a week, Ramil made a sharp turn northward, away from the country and was forecast to continue moving northward, the government weather station said.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, Ramil was charted 425 kilometers northeast of Basco, Batanes, with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 120 kph, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.

It added Ramil was forecast to be 230 km east of Okinawa, Japan, by Monday morning.

Storm alerts were lowered across the northern part of the country where relief operations had been prepared in anticipation of the arrival of a massive typhoon.

The weather station, however, warned residents in the north to remain on alert for flashfloods and landslides caused by continued rains in an area where the ground is already saturated from previous storms.

The government had already prepared relief goods and rescue equipment and pre-emptively evacuated more than 2,500 persons from vulnerable areas during Ramil’s approach.

All the 378 families or 1,310 persons from La Union and Ilocos Norte who were evacuated on Friday at the height of Ramil have already returned to their homes, according to a report of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) regional office.

The report fair weather was already prevailing all over the Ilocos region as of 3 p.m. Saturday.

The evacuees were from Bangar, Agoo, Aringay and Luna, La Union; and Banna, Ilocos Norte. They were preemptively evacuated Friday morning due to the approaching typhoon.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), for its part, said rescue units and relief goods will stay put until Ramil leaves the country’s territory.

According to NDCC spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, the office remained on alert for a possible U-turn by the storm.

He said they will not withdraw following the announcement of Pagasa that Ramil shows erratic movement and a U-turn is not impossible.

Torres added authorities will take advantage of the improved weather condition to attend to residents affected by storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

He said they will prioritize those in Northern Luzon affected by landslides.

Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) personnel had been overwhelmed when Ondoy and Pepeng hit Luzon, one after another from Sept. 26, bringing the worst flooding in the region in four decades as well as massive landslides in the northern mountain areas.

About 1,000 persons died due to the two storms and more than 162,000 people are still housed in makeshift evacuation centers because some of their homes are still flooded from rain brought on by Ondoy and Pepeng, the OCD said.

As to the San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan, its six gates remained closed, although its turbine was reported spilling water downstream at the rate of 184 cubic meters per second, while generating electricity.

San Roque Dam’s water level at 10:00 a.m. today was at 276.35 meters above sea level, below its critical level of 290 meters. Gina Peralta-Elorde, Ted Boehnert, PNA and AFP

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