LEGAZPI CITY, Jan. 9 (PNA) - The Albay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Council (PDRRMC) is on heightened alert Monday and placed the province on a state of preparedness as intermittent rainfall spawned by the tail-end of the cold front affecting Southern Luzon and Eastern Visayas might trigger floods and landslides in low lying areas, including mountain slopes.
Albay Governor Joey Salceda on Monday issued a PDRRMC advisory placing the province on disaster alert and preparedness status and directed 15 MDRRMC and three CDRRMC to be on 24-hour watch and to be ready to operationalize their respective flood and landslide evacuation plan once the volume of rainfall exceeds its normal levels.
Salceda also directed the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) to closely monitor in coordination with the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services (PAGASA) the hourly rainfall events and other weather instruments that would issue advisories to enable various disaster councils to keep track with the ongoing bad weather condition prevailing in the area.
He said the intermittent rains produced by the tail-end of the cold front may trigger floods, lahar flows and landslides in low-laying areas and mountain slopes in the towns and cities of Albay.
The landslide-prone areas are 127 villages in the towns of Libon, Polangui, Oas, Tiwi, Malinao. Sto. Domingo, Jovellar and Guinobatan, while flood-prone areas are 173 villages in the towns of Libon, Polangui, Oas, Malinao, Guinobatan, Jovellar, Camalig, including the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao.
Lahar flows would affect villages in the southeast quadrant of the volcano such as Guinobatan, Daraga, Camalig and Sto. Domingo and this city.
The PAGASA weather bulletin on Monday at 5 a.m. said the tail-end of a cold front will affect Southern Luzon and Visayas and Mindanao. These areas will have mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and isolated thunderstorms becoming cloudy with widespread rains over eastern Visayas and North Eastern Mindanao which may trigger flashfloods and landslides. The rest of Luzon will be partly cloudy to cloudy skies with light rains.
Moderate to strong winds blowing from the Northeast will prevail over Luzon and Visayas and coming from the Northeast and East over the rest of the country. The coastal waters throughout the archipelago will be moderate to rough.
At the onset of heavy rains, villagers are warned not the cross swelling rivers and for residents living along mountain slopes to be on alert for possible landslides. (PNA)
LAP/FFC/MSA/cbd