Northern Luzon still on alert as 'Lando' keeps strength

MANILA, Philippines — Cyclone "Lando" (international name Koppu), after having weakened from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm on Monday, maintained its strength early Tuesday, the state weather bureau said.

In its 5 a.m. advisory, PAGASA said Lando was estimated 130 kilometers northeast of Laoag City, Ilocos Norte as of 4 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gusts of up to 120 kph.

The weather system is also expected to move northeast at 5 kph to 60 kilometers west southwest of Calayan, Cagayan by early Wednesday morning.

LIVE UPDATES: Tropical cyclone 'Lando'

Stormy weather is expected over the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, Apayao, Batanes, Northern Cagayan including Calayan and Babuyan group of islands.

Public storm warning signals are still raised in some areas of northern Luzon while lowered elsewhere.

Signal No. 2

• Ilocos Norte
• Ilocos Sur,
• Apayao
• Abra
• Batanes
• Northern Cagayan
• Calayan and Babuyan group of Islands

Signal No. 1

• La Union
• Pangasinan
• Benguet
• Nueva Vizcaya
• Ifugao
• Mt. Province
• Kalinga
• Isabela
• The rest of Cagayan

Weather platform Accuweather noted that the cyclone will continue to bring threatening conditions in the Philippines through Wednesday even as it weakened.

"Life-threatening conditions will persist across northern Luzon through the middle of the week as [Lando] drifts northward," meteorologist Eric Leister said in a post.

PAGASA forecast track of Tropical Storm Lando as of 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

Army, police and civilian volunteers rushed Monday to rescue hundreds of villagers trapped in their flooded homes and on rooftops in Aurora province battered by the slow-moving cyclone, officials said.

As a typhoon, Lando blew ashore into northeastern Aurora early Sunday, leaving over 11 dead, forcing more than 65,000 villagers from their homes, and leaving nine provinces without electricity. By Monday afternoon, Lando had weakened into a tropical storm over Ilocos Norte province with winds of 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 135 kph (84 mph).

Several of the affected provinces, led by Nueva Ecija, were inundated by floods that swelled rivers and cascaded down mountains, trapping villagers in their homes, said Nigel Lontoc of the Office of Civil Defense.

"There were people who got trapped by the flood on their roofs, some were rescued already," Vice Mayor Henry Velarde of Nueva Ecija's Jaen town told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that about 80 percent of 27 villages in his farming town of more than 45,000 people were inundated by flood. — with the Associated Press