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Basyang batters the Visayas, northern parts of Mindanao en route to Palawan


(Updated 2:00 a.m. Feb. 1) Basyang (international name Kajiki) cut across the Visayas and northern areas of Mindanao Friday evening to Saturday morning. When it srikes Palawan, it would have made eight landfalls. It packed maximum sustained winds of 85 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 100 kph, and is forecast to move west at 33 kph.
 
Basyang dumped rain across the Philippines' midsection, which is the same area ravaged by earthquakes and typhoons over the past months.
 
GMA News resident meteorologist Nathaniel Cruz said the storm would lose some of its strength every time it comes into friction with land, but then regain power whenever it travels over sea.
 
By Saturday afternoon, Basyang is expected to be 166 km northeast of Puerto Princesa City. By Sunday afternoon, it is expected to be 529 km west-northwest of Puerto Princesa City or outside the Philippine area of responsibility.
 
Basyang made landfall at least five times in areas in Mindanao and Visayas since Friday night.
 
PAGASA said the landfall from Siargao to areas in Cebu in Central Visayas were recorded between 6 p.m. and midnight Friday. It said these included:
 
  • Siargao, 6 p.m.
  • Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte, 9 p.m.
  • Ubay, Bohol, 10 p.m.
  • San Miguel, Bohol, 11 p.m.
  • Naga City, Cebu, midnight

Stranded

At least 1,600 passengers were stranded in Cebu province as of early Saturday.
 
The passengers were affected by the cancellation of sea vessels' trips due to bad weather, radio dzBB's Cebu affiliate reported.
 
Local Coast Guard authorities had barred vessels from leaving ports in Cebu due to the province being among the areas under Storm Signal No. 2.
 
Many vessels were anchored at the province's pier, the report added.
 
As of 9:27 p.m. Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard said 9,541 passengers were stranded due to Basyang.
 
Of these, 1,021 were stranded in Cebu, 90 in Tagbilaran and 385 in Dumaguete.

At least one province, Cebu, has already announced the suspension of classes in all levels on Saturday, an announcement that would benefit college students as elementary and high school students don't have classes on Saturday.

Warnings and evacuations

Basyang entered the PAR as a tropical depression and intensified before Friday noon. As a precaution, Tacloban City implemented a forced evacuation on the same day, evacuating more than 2,000 residents to nine evacuation centers.

Weather for areas unaffected by the storm remains grim. MIMAROPA, Bicol, and the rest of Mindanao will be cloudy with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms, and the rest of Luzon will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated light rains.

Luzon's seaboards remain under a gale warning, due to strong to gale force winds associated with the surge of Basyang and the Northeast Monsoon. Southern Luzon's eastern and southern seaboards, as well as Central Luzon's eastern seaboards, will experience rough to very rough sea conditions, with wave heights reaching 3.4 to 4.5 meters in height.

Fishing vessels and small seacrafts should avoid setting out to sea are advised to stay ashore while bigger sea vehicles are warned of the waves.




Storm after storm

Basyang came barely a week after Tropical Depression Agaton, which weakened into a Low Pressure Area on Jan. 20.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported 70 casualties due to the storm, with 86 injured and 9 missing in the regions of CARAGA, IX, X, and XI. Out of the 16 provinces affected, 244,344 families were affected and 10,244 families displaced.

Damage to infrastructures amounted to P273.6 million and the agriculture sector suffered P293 million in losses. — VC/KBK/ELR, GMA News
Tags: pagasaweather, weather
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