Relief items sent as Helen crosses Northern Luzon

Tropical storm Helen (international name: Kai-tak) was forecast to hit the northern tip of Luzon, the country’s main island, this morning, then pass over mountainous regions before heading towards Taiwan, the state weather bureau said.

"We are rushing to pre-position relief items to the northern areas ahead of this storm," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon J. Soliman told AFP.

"We wanted to make sure that we have enough supplies there just in case areas get cut off by landslides or floods."

A 3:00 p.m. bulletin showed the howler will be closest to land at 50 kilometers (km) north-northeast of Tuguegarao City, in Cagayan province, and is expected to move to 270km west-southwest of Basco, Batanes tomorrow morning and 550km northwest of Laoag City, Ilocos Norte Friday morning.

Storm warning signal 2 has been raised over Cagayan, Isabela, Kalinga, Batanes Group of Islands, Calayan, Babuyan Group of Islands and Apayao, areas that will experience 61-100 kilometer-per-hour (kph) winds.

Quirino, Aurora, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, Benguet, Mt. Province, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Abra, meanwhile, will have winds of 45-60 kph as the provinces were placed under storm signal 1.

Helen, bringing in winds of 75 kph near its eye and gusts of up to 90 kph, was also forecast to bring heavy rains across the central and southern areas of Luzon, where 334,000 people remain in evacuation centers following flooding last week that in some farming areas remain waist-deep.

The floods, which submerged 80% of Manila, killed 95 people, according to the government.

The government had initially said Helen would start dumping up to 35 millimeters of rain an hour over large areas of Luzon beginning Monday night, triggering warnings of more mass evacuations from officials. But as of noon Tuesday parts of Luzon were only experiencing scattered, light rain showers.

Defense Undersecretary Benito T. Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said authorities had begun releasing water from five dams in the mountain regions of Luzon that were near overflowing in anticipation of more rains.

But the "controlled release" was not expected to swamp already swollen river systems and cause more flooding, he said.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

An exiting emergency response system, meanwhile, is in place that will help utility firms cope with the impact of tropical storm Helen that is expected to hit extreme Northern Luzon and dump rain over the rest of the island group today, an official said yesterday.

"Electric utilities, even NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines), are ready for situations like this. We’ve gone through a couple already and certainly all the emergency protocols are in place," Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia M. Asirit said on the sidelines of the 6th Wholesale Electricity Spot Market participants’ annual meeting.

The protocols include the provision of updates on the condition of facilities.

"Initially, when you have a typhoon that hits you, NGCP for example, cannot do updates [on transmission lines] while they do line patrolling as part of their emergency response system," Ms. Asirit explained.

"They need to let the strong winds and heavy rains pass then clearing operations also will be under way, same with electric utilities in their distribution areas," she added.

The NGCP, for its part, said systems are in place to minimize the impact of Helen on the Luzon grid’s transmission operation and facilities.

"Preparations include ensuring the reliability of communications equipment, availability of hardware materials and supplies necessary for the repair of damages to facilities, as well as the positioning of line crews in strategic areas, to facilitate immediate restoration work," it said in a statement.