Truemors
Less than a week after storms Wutip and Pabuk wreaked havoc across the northern island of Luzon in the Philippines, another storm is affecting the country, bringing heavy rains and flooding across Western Luzon and Visayas. Storm Egay (international name: Sepat) entered the Philippine area of responsibility Monday morning, according to Inquirer.net writer, TJ Burgonio.
The deluge is expected to further increase water levels at many dams in the region. Only less than a month ago, the government resorted to cloud seeding to stave of the effects of the dry spell.
“If it enhances the southwest monsoon, it will bring the water level further up,” hydrologist Edgar de la Cruz of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said in a phone interview.The water elevation at Angat climbed to 183.5 meters at 6 a.m. Monday, more than three meters above the critical level of 180 m.
Egay, spotted 1,150 kilometers east of northern Luzon at 10 a.m. Monday, was expected to induce the southwest monsoon (habagat) to bring rains over the western section of Luzon and the Visayas in the next two to three days.
With maximum winds of 65 kilometers per hour and gustiness of 80 kilometers per hour, it was moving west toward extreme northern Luzon at 11 kilometers per hour. It was the third cyclone to enter the country’s area of responsibility after “Chedeng” and “Dodong” in August.
Angat Dam is the main reservoir that supplies water to millions of residents in Metro Manila and hundreds of hectares of farm land across Central Luzon.
Classes in all levels have been suspended in the National Capital Region Wednesday morning, the third time in less than two weeks. The suspension has been announced by Department of Education NCR Director Teresita Dimalanta.
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita has announced at noon that work in government offices has been suspended for the rest of the day.
At the country's main business district of Makati, floods rise knee-deep high in some areas as workers struggle to go about their daily activities.
Flooding has been a perennial problem for many Metro Manila residents due to poor infrastructure and garbage clogging drainage systems. Recently, the Metro Manila Development Authority has mulled plans to remove shanties along river banks and creeks as people living here were believed to be throwing their trash on the water system.
According to an Inquirer.net report, "Egay" is expected to be 360 kilometers east-southeast of Casiguran,
Aurora by Thursday morning, moving closer to land. It will be 60
kilometers of Basco, Batanes by Saturday morning.
Last week, thousands have been evacuated to higher land to escape the raging floods in provinces north and south of the country's capital. Hundreds of farmers in the central Luzon province of Pampanga, 80 kilometers north of Manila, have lost their crops due to new lahar flows set off by strong winds and hard rainfall. The lahar was brought by the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in Zambalaes province.
Photo from PAGASA
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