Philippines braces for Typhoon Rammasun / Glenda

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Philippines braces for Typhoon Rammasun / Glenda
By Shirley Escalante in Manila and staff

MANILA: -- Thousands of people living in coastal areas of the Philippines are evacuating as the first major storm of the rainy season barrels towards the archipelago.

Typhoon Rammasun is expected to make landfall tonight in the eastern Philippines, and pass over the capital Manila of more than 12 million people.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration says Rammasun has intensified into a Typhoon, and is moving slowly west toward the Bicol region.

At 4am local time, it was around 270 kilometres east of Legazpi City, Albay, and packing peak winds of up to 120 kilometres an hour and gusts of up to 150 km/h.

Rammasun, known locally as Glenda, is expected to hit fishing communities in the eastern Philippines late Tuesday and then bring heavy rain to Manila and other heavily populated northern areas, civil defence officials said.

The Philippine Red Cross says the typhoon has strengthened as it crosses the western Pacific Ocean, but may weaken after making landfall.

Full story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-15/an-philippines-braces-for-typhoon-rammasun/5596688

-- Australia Nework News 2014-07-15

[Asia2000]

I'm back in Cebu, and it's cold like a Scandinavian summer here.

Very quiet in the streets due to low temperature. The few who goes out, are dressed for winter temp.

Bad weather last 2 days, with loads of rain and windy.

Local TV News are sending out warnings all day and night.

[Lite Beer]

Philippines typhoon toll soars as new storm threatens

MANILA, July 19, 2014 (AFP) - The disaster-weary Philippines braced for a second severe storm in five days on Saturday as the death toll from Typhoon Rammasun surged to 77, officials said.

While Tropical Storm Matmo was not forecast to hit the main island of Luzon, the weather service warned it would still bring heavy rains to the area over the weekend, along with the threat of flash floods or landslides.

"(Matmo) has entered the Philippine area of responsibility. We should get ready now before the heavy rains fall," President Benigno Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail Valte said in a warning broadcast over government radio.

The threat from Matmo came as the country picked up the pieces from Rammasun, the first major storm of the wet season and the deadliest since Super Typhoon Haiyan killed about 7,300 people in November last year.

Rammasun sliced across the country's economic heartland including Manila on Tuesday, killing 77 people and wrecking more than 111,000 homes, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in an updated tally.

The death toll had stood at 54 dead a day earlier, before casualty reports from remote areas came in.

Power was restored to most of Manila, a sprawling metropolis of more than 12 million people, overnight Friday, according to the regional utility Manila Electric Co.

However, it warned that power cuts of up to five hours a day would continue across the capital as it rations limited supply, with a number of generating plants still cut off from the grid.

The government said it would take a few more days to repair thousands of power pylons and downed transmission lines across the industrial provinces south of Manila and the impoverished Bicol agricultural region to the southeast.

Matmo was about 600 kilometres (380) miles off the eastern island of Samar on Saturday morning with maximum gusts of up to 90 kilometres an hour, the state weather service said.

It was forecast to head northeast, skirting Luzon before hitting the sparsely populated Batan island group between Luzon and Taiwan early Tuesday.

The Philippines endures about 20 cyclones each year.

Rammasun was meanwhile lashing southern China's Guangxi region bordering Vietnam Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 155 kilometres an hour, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

It is forecast to weaken into a tropical storm on Sunday and dissolve into a low-pressure area on Monday as it tracks the China-Vietnam border.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2014-07-19