Ready for ‘Reming’

29 November 2006

LEGAZPI CITY—Local disaster council and civil defense officials are preparing for typhoon “Reming” and eyeing the possibility it may become a super-typhoon on Thursday when it hits the Bicol region.

“We have already alerted around 130 civil defense deputized coordinators in all the cities, provinces, and municipalities in the Bicol region,” said Cherry Abion, operations staff member of the Office of Civil Defense-Bicol.

It is standard procedure that once public storm signal number one is raised, the Coast Guard will not allow sea vessels, especially motorized bancas and fishing vessels, to sail, said Lucita Madarang, regional director of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina)-Bicol.

Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Public Safety and Emeregency Management Office of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, said they were in the alert and preparedness status.

Daep said that in case public storm signal number 3 was raised, the number of individuals to be evacuated in Albay was around 150,000—and 300,000 if signal number 4 was raised.

He advised the public to wait for the appropriate advisory to be issued today, depending on their monitoring of the typhoon’s status.

Susceptible areas have already been identified by the PDCC.

Tropical Storm Reming, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysicial and Astronomical Services Administration (Pag-asa), was detected 870 km east of Samar as of 11 a.m. yesterday with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 120 kph.

Reming was moving west-northwest at 26 kph and was expected to be 350 km east-northeast of Samar today.

The weather bureau is monitoring the path of Reming as it may intensify into a super-typhoon and travels a route similar to “Milenyo” and may hit the Bicol region on Thursday or strike Northern Luzon or Central Luzon as what “Paeng” and “Queenie” did. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon