Tropical Storm 'Inday', new LPA to bring more rains

MANILA, Philippines — The southwest monsoon enhanced by severe tropical storm Inday and a new low-pressure area off Ilocos Norte will continue to dump rains over flooded areas in Luzon this weekend.

This developed as two boys, aged 11 and 12, were buried in a landslide in Agoo, La Union during heavy monsoon rains on Friday.

Officials said the continuous heavy rains had loosened the soil that caused the landslide and hit the house of brothers Jonard and Joseph Garillos located at the slope of the mountain in Barangay San Francisco.

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) weather specialist Loriedin dela Cruz said the two weather systems will bring intermittent moderate to heavy monsoon rains over Ilocos region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija today.

Scattered light to moderate with occasional heavy rains will prevail over Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon, she said.

Several areas in Luzon, particularly in the western section, remained flooded due to heavy rains brought by the southwest monsoon, which was enhanced by successive tropical cyclones in the past days.

“We don’t expect fair weather over these areas in the next 24 hours. We urge them to always bring umbrellas and raincoats,” Dela Cruz said.

Inday (international name Ampil) intensified into a severe tropical storm yesterday and was expected to leave the Philippine area of responsibility last night or this morning.

As of 3 p.m. yesterday, the center of Inday was spotted at 945 kilometers east northeast of Basco, Batanes.

Packing winds of 90 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 115 kph, Inday was forecast to move northwest slowly.

Meanwhile, the low-pressure area, which was still outside the Philippine area of responsibility, was located at 475 km west of Laoag City as of 10 a.m.

The weather system is projected to enter the country’s area of responsibility over the weekend.

PAGASA, however, does not expect the low-pressure area to intensify into a cyclone within the next 24 hours.

PAGASA continued to warn the public in affected areas against prolonged flooding and possible landslides.

It also advised fishermen not to go out to the western seaboard of Central Luzon due to big waves generated by the southwest monsoon.

The rivers crisscrossing Pangasinan have started to swell, inundating several towns in the province since Tuesday.

Provincial disaster officials said they are monitoring the water level of the Agno River, Tarlac River, Tagamosing River, Sinocalan River and Angalacan River.

The increasing water level of the rivers is threatening the towns of Santo Tomas, Alcala, Bautista, Bayambang, Urbiztondo, Mangatarem, Aguilar, Lingayen, San Fabian, Mangaldan, Binalonan, portions of Urdaneta, Manaoag and Santa Barbara in Pangasinan.

The swelling rivers are also threatening the towns of Gerona, Paniqui, Moncada, San Manuel, Camiling, and Tarlac City in nearby Tarlac province.

The towns of Sta. Barbara, Calasiao, Binmaley and Dagupan City in Pangasinan are still underwater since Tuesday, officials said.

The Bustos Dam in Bulacan is still releasing water from its reservoir on the third straight day due to the heavy monsoon rains.

Eight barangays in Meycauayan City are still inundated while Calumpit has 12 villages under a meter deep of floodwater.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said it has released more than P5 million worth of relief assistance to augment the supplies of local government units in regions in Luzon affected by floods.

The DSWD said it has recorded a total of 46,934 families or 190,295 persons affected by the heavy southwest monsoon rains in these regions. – With Jun Elias, Eva Visperas, Ramon Efren Lazaro, Rainier Allan Ronda, Rudy Santos