THE severe tropical storm outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (international name Mawar), has intensified into a typhoon, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services (PAGASA) said yesterday.
Weather specialists Obet Badrina and Anna Clauren Jorda said Mawar, as of 3 p.m. yesterday, was some 2,275 kms east of Mindanao, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 170 kph. It is moving north-northwestward at 15 kph.
In a public weather forecast yesterday morning, Badrina urged the public to continuously monitor updates from PAGASA because Mawar “may intensify into a super typhoon since it’s still in the ocean.”
“It’s possible it will enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Friday,” Badrina added of Mawar, which will be given the local name Betty upon entry to the country.
If it enters PAR, it will be the country’s second tropical cyclone for the year. The first was tropical depression Amang in April, which 26,065 families or 96,425 individuals in Calabarzon and Bicol
Badrina said Mawar is not affecting any part of the country so far but may enhance the southwest monsoon over the weekend in the western sections of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
In a radio interview yesterday morning, Jorda said: “In the next 24 to 48 hours, it (typhoon) may reach the super typhoon category but we are not seeing a landfall scenario in any part of the country.”
Jorda said the public should still prepare for the typhoon “because it’s possible it will enhance the southwest monsoon which will bring rains in the western sections of the country.”
DSWD RESPONSE
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has started packing family food packs and non-food relief items for distribution to areas expected to be hit by brewing tropical storm, Social Welfare assistant secretary Rommel Lopez said yesterday.
“The DSWD-National Resource Operations Center (NROC) located in Pasay City, Metro Manila is currently doing pre-work activities for Family Food Packs (FFPs) in preparation for the tropical cyclone, which according to PAGASA may develop into a super typhoon. The DSWD-National Resource and Logistics Management Bureau (NRLMB) is also closely coordinating with the Field Offices that may be hit by the weather disturbance for augmentation of food and non-food items,” Lopez said in a statement.
An initial 16,355 FFPs have been prepositioned by the DSWD field office in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), which includes the 4,401 FFPs in Abra, 5,300 FFPs in Kalinga, and 6,654 FFPs in Apayao.
Lopez said that to date, the department also has 797,051 FFPs, estimated to amount to P565.78 million, already deployed in different regional offices. It also has a total of 110,667 FFPs available at the NROC (101,525 FFPs) in Pasay City and the Visayas Disaster Resource Center (9,142 FFPs.)
DSWD also has P579.89 million in Quick Response Fund at the Central Office and P69.77 million are available at the DSWD Field Offices. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
