'Quinta' intensifies into a storm; new low-pressure area spotted

MANILA, Philippines – Tropical depression “Quinta” intensified into a storm yesterday as it moved toward the South China Sea, the weather bureau said.

This developed as a new shallow low pressure area (LPA) was spotted yesterday morning 280 kilometers east of Mindanao, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.

Pagasa Director Prisco Nilo said the LPA is expected to intensify into a tropical depression within the next 12 to 18 hours and would be named “Rolly.”

Nilo said it is possible that it would be stronger than Quinta.

As of 2 p.m. yesterday, Quinta was located at 370 kilometers west-northwest of Coron, Palawan, packing winds of 65 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 80 kph.

All public storm warning signals were lowered as of 11 a.m. yesterday.

Nilo said the eastern sections of the Visayas and Mindanao would continue to experience rainshowers in the next two days as the LPA moves closer to the country.

Quinta was forecast to move west-northwest at 22 kph. It is expected to be 720 kms west-northwest of Coron this morning.

It is the 17th tropical cyclone to enter the country and the first this month.

Weather forecasters said one to two cyclones are expected to visit the Philippines this November.

Meanwhile, Pagasa said fishing boats and other small seacraft are advised not to venture out to sea due to big waves associated with the surge of the northeast monsoon expected to affect the western and extreme seaboard of Northern Luzon.

“Sea conditions in these areas will be rough to very rough,” Pagasa said.

The rest of Visayas and Mindanao would be rainy due to the intertropical convergence zone, Nilo said.

Improved weather is expected over Luzon during the weekend.

In another development, divers from salvaging firm Harbor Star called off their search and retrieval operations yesterday because of bad weather brought about by Quinta.

Captain Lino Paiton, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on-scene commander, said that the total number of bodies recovered from the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars stood at 166.

He said that the storm was felt at its peak from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. last Thursday.

Vessels, including Sulpicio Lines’s M/V Tacloban Princess, took shelter along Romblon shores.         – With Evelyn Macairan