Heavy rains until 2012 - Pagasa

MANILA, Philippines - The state weather bureau advised the public yesterday to brace for recurring heavy rains brought by La Niña that could last until the first quarter of 2012. 

“We will have to plan now for the impacts of La Niña, which in latest models is now full blown,” Graciano Yumul, supervising undersecretary of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), said.

Yumul said the recurring system is likely to bring heavy rains until February next year.

La Niña brought torrential rains that caused severe flooding in 25 provinces in the Philippines from December 2010 to March 2011.

Officials of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the flooding and mudslides during that period killed at least 42 people, with eight injured and five people missing.

The massive flooding also affected over 1.3 million people from 144 towns in the eastern provinces.

Yumul said the torrential rains were a combined effect of the northeast monsoon and the tail end of a cold front that started on Dec. 29, 2010 caused by La Niña.

He said a new tropical cyclone is likely to bring more rains over some parts of the country this week.

He said a low pressure area east of Mindanao was expected to enter the Philippine area of responsibility last night and intensify into a tropical depression within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Yumul said the weather disturbance would be named “Ramon” once it enters Philippine waters and becomes a cyclone.

He said Ramon was projected to cross the provinces of Dinagat, Leyte, Masbate, and Mindoro before exiting to the West Philippine Sea.

“Nearby provinces must also prepare. (The) NCR (National Capital Region) will feel peripheral effects by Friday,” Yumul said.

Another low pressure area was also spotted 110 kilometers west of Iba, Zambales yesterday.

Yumul said the low pressure area over the West Philippine Sea is embedded along the intertropical convergence zone and is not expected to develop into a tropical cyclone.

But it was forecast to bring cloudy skies with widespread rains along the eastern side of Luzon, including Metro Manila, and Visayas yesterday.

Yumul added that four dams in Luzon continued to release water as of 8 a.m. yesterday. These are the Ambuklao dam in Benguet with two gates open; Binga dam, also in Benguet, two gates open; San Roque dam in Pangasinan, two gates open and Magat dam in Isabela, five gates open.

101 dead after two typhoons

The NDRRMC also reported yesterday that the death toll from the two strong typhoons that cut across the north of the Philippines’ main island and left behind widespread flooding for the past two weeks has risen to 101.

Typhoon “Pedring” hit the Philippines on Sept. 27 and was followed on Oct. 1 by typhoon “Quiel.”

Both crossed agricultural provinces of northern Luzon, with crop damage estimated at about P12 billion.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development said thousands of families remained inside the evacuation centers in typhoon-hit areas in Luzon as of yesterday while several areas were still submerged in floodwater.

A total of 78 evacuation centers remained open, serving some 6,746 families, according to the DSWD-Disaster Response Operations, Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC).

Forty-eight evacuation centers are located in Region 3, serving 3,903 families. The rest are in Region 5 (Bicol region) and the National Capital Region.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said some of the evacuees have returned to their homes.

“Affected families are now going home to start anew. Consequently, we are now preparing for their rehabilitation on top of the relief assistance being provided to those still in evacuation centers,” Soliman said in a statement.

She said the DSWD would provide assistance to the families whose homes were destroyed by typhoon Pedring through the Core Shelter Assistance Program (CSAP).

Livelihood opportunities through the Self-Employment Assistance Kaunlaran (SEA-K) program and Cash-for-Work/Training (CFW/T) will also be provided to the affected families and communities, she said.

The DSWD, through its Cash-for-Food or Work (CFW) program, will provide the affected families with cash or food in exchange for doing community projects, such as repair and reconstruction of damaged houses and community facilities, cleanup and garbage collection, Soliman added.

Soliman said the government and non-government organizations have provided the victims of Pedring a total of P111.0 million worth of relief assistance.

The DSWD social workers also continued to provide critical incident stress debriefing for the victims of typhoon, Soliman said.  Helen Flores, Alexis Romero