Super howler nears Phl

MANILA, Philippines - A typhoon that has devastated islands in the Pacific is forecast to become a category 5 monster howler as it barrels toward the Philippines this week.

International tracking of Typhoon Maysak prompted Philippine government officials to raise alerts yesterday for emergency disaster rescue and relief.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said Maysak will be named Chedeng when it enters the Philippine area of responsibility tonight or tomorrow morning.

Based on PAGASA’s latest forecast, Maysak could make landfall over central or southern Luzon this weekend, putting Metro Manila along its path.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the eye of Maysak was located at 1,690 kilometers east of Surigao City.

It was packing winds of 175 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 210 kph, and forecast to move west-northwest at 20 kph.

In an interview, PAGASA weather forecaster Gener Quitlong said the forecast track of Maysak may still change depending on the movement of the ridge of high-pressure system north of the typhoon or over Japan.

“This typhoon is still too far to affect any part of the country,” PAGASA said in its advisory yesterday.

Fiji’s Na Draki weather service said Maysak was expected to become a super typhoon.

“It’s been on a very consistent path... that’s taking it towards Luzon island in the Philippines eventually,” Neville Koop, a meteorologist at Na Draki, was quoted by Australia’s ABC News as saying.

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II has called on mayors and governors of Eastern Visayas and Southern Luzon to stand guard and be ready for the expected entry of Maysak today.

“The mayor are the first responders,” he said. “They should man the command centers in their respective localities.”

The Coast Guard will not allow vessels to sail if PAGASA raises typhoon signals in a particular area.

Acting spokesman Commander William Arquero said the Coast Guard would cancel some sea voyages if Maysak enters the country and travelers might be stranded in seaports during the Holy Week.

The passengers’ safety is the Coast Guard’s primary concern, he added.

Arquero advised holidaymakers to cancel their trips if going by boat to their destinations.

“Getting stranded at the pier during a typhoon would be difficult,” he said.

Arquero said the Coast Guard is closely monitoring the movement of Maysak.

“Once there is an advisory from PAGASA, then we would decide which measure to take,” he said.

Arquero said the Coast Guard would suspend travel to and from provinces where PAGASA would hoist public storm warning signals.

“In instances where the destination of the ship is not placed in any public storm warning signals but the provinces along the route are under storm signals, the Coast Guard would cancel the trip,” he said.

Super-typhoon

In Guam, meteorologists warned yesterday that Maysak was reported to have left several casualties and severe damage in Micronesia, and was building into a super-typhoon as it swept across the central Pacific towards the Yap group of islands.

The island of Chuuk, part of the Federated States of Micronesia,

received a direct hit late on Sunday from Maysak and the Yap group was next in its path.

“Chuuk was devastated,” lawyer Kembo Mida said in an email to the Ayuda Foundation relief organization, which is based in Guam about 1,000 kilometers away.

“Houses were blown away and trees snapped in half. It was very dangerous and scary... a ship sank too.”

The Pacific News Center in Guam said FSM public information officer Marz Akapito “is reporting that five people have died in Chuuk state due to Maysak.”

The consul-general for the Federated States of Micronesia based in Guam, Robert Ruecho, told AFP he had heard various casualty counts of one and later five, but “cannot confirm anything right now.”

Maysak is expected to have intensified to a maximum category five storm by the time it hits Yap early today.

Koop said at its peak it would have winds of 270 kilometers per hour.

“This typhoon will be very destructive,” Koop told AFP.

“At its peak, Typhoon Maysak will be as strong as Cyclone Pam.”

Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam slammed into Vanuatu over two weeks ago, causing widespread damage and leaving 11 people dead in the South Pacific nation.

The director of the Federated States of Micronesia National Emergency Management Office, Andrew Yatilman, told Radio New Zealand that Maysak scored a direct hit on the most populated area of Chuuk, home to nearly 50,000 people.

“Residences (had) their roofs completely torn off, and so whoever was staying in those will have to be accommodated either by relatives or in public shelters that have been set up by the government,” he said.

“Most people are all right, we understand that there may have been a few casualties; between four and five that we know so far.”

Ruecho, the consul-general, told the Marianas Variety newspaper in Guam he had not been able to make contact with people in Chuuk.

“I haven’t been able to speak with the governor,” he said.

“The phone lines have been difficult today, power is down and so my information is secondhand from the capital in Pohnpei.

“Lots of flooding and many of the roofs... we heard they were torn off many of the residences and buildings – maybe 80 to 90 percent of homes.” – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Evelyn Macairan, AFP