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The national weather bureau on Sunday warned residents in Southern
Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao to brace for landslides and flash
floods that Typhoon “Butchoy” (international code name: “Rammasun”)
may bring.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration said Butchoy maintained its
strength toward northern Philippines while a new low-pressure area
was spotted off the central part of the country early yesterday.
As of 2 a.m. local time (1800 GMT Saturday), the
typhoon was 980km east of Northern Luzon, according to the weather
bureau.
It is the first major tropical storm to hit the
country this year, which is visited by about 20 typhoons each year
on average.
Butchoy packed maximum winds of 185km per hour (kph)
near the center and gustiness of up to 220kph, and was moving north
at 20kph, said the weather bureau.
Meanwhile, the new low-pressure area was spotted
at 260km west of Mindoro, central Philippines, the bureau added,
without elaborating if it would grow into another typhoon.
“Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will
experience cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms
becoming widespread rains over the western sections of the Visayas
and Mindanao which may trigger flash floods and landslides,” it
said. The Visayas is the country’s third-largest group of islands
and Mindanao, the second.
The rest of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest
group of islands, will be partly cloudy to at times cloudy with
isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or
evening, according to the weather bureau.
-- Xinhua
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