Power out for 400,000 Meralco customers due to 'Kristine'
MANILA, Philippines — More than 400,000 households served by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) remained without power this Friday morning, October 25, after heavy rains and winds from Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) pummeled Luzon all night, toppling trees and power lines.
At the storm's peak on Thursday, October 24, at least 566,000 customers experienced outages, Meralco Spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said in an interview with "TeleRadyo Serbisyo" on Friday.
Efforts to restore power began immediately after the winds subsided, with Meralco personnel focusing first on the main lines, Zaldarriaga said.
The hardest-hit areas include Cavite, with over 200,000 outages, Laguna with over 100,000 and Batangas with more than 40,000. In Metro Manila, particularly in Quezon City, Caloocan City, and Valenzuela City, there are at least 30,000 affected customers.
"Many were affected by the strong winds last night. As we speak, we’re still working on restoring power in several area... Metro Manila entered the picture last night when the rains poured and the winds became quite strong," Zaldarriaga said.
As of 6 a.m., the number of affected customers had decreased to 400,000, Zaldarriaga said.
He estimated that at least half of the total number of affected households would see their power restored by tomorrow.
Malacañang has suspended government work and classes in Luzon for the third consecutive day due to the unfavorable weather conditions brought by Kristine.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said on Friday that it is working to restore power in five provinces hit by Kristine. These are Batangas, Camarines Sur, Pangasinan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija.
State weather bureau PAGASA has kept Signal No. 2 hoisted over Metro Manila and other areas in Luzon, according to its 4 a.m. tropical cyclone bulletin.
Kristine is forecasted to continue moving west-northwest and exit the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) later today.
However, PAGASA warned that Kristine might re-enter PAR next week, depending on the movement of another developing weather system.
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