ANTIQUE – The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) is closely monitoring coastal municipalities in the southern portion of the province as Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai) inches closer. They could suffer from storm surges.
In Anini-y town, it deployed an emergency response team composed of seven personnel.
A storm surge is the abnormal rise in seawater level during a storm, measured as the height of the water above the normal predicted astronomical tide.
The surge is caused primarily by a storm’s winds pushing water onshore. The amplitude of the storm surge at any given location depends on the orientation of the coast line with the storm track; the intensity, size, and speed of the storm.
PDDRM officer Broderick Train said Anini-y is a coastal town located at the southernmost tip of Antique.
Other coastal towns in the south were Tobias Fornier, Hamtic, San Jose de Buenavista, and Belison.
“We are on heightened alert,” Train said.
“Odette” turned into a super typhoon yesterday, according to the US-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).
The JTWC reported that “Odette” was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 knots — 259 kilometers per hour (kph) — with gustiness of 170 knots (340 kph).
“[Super Typhoon Rai] has undergone an impressive rapid intensification,” JTWC said in its report.
According to Train, a memorandum order has been issued to all mayors and chairpersons of Municipal DRRM councils, barangay captains, and barangay DRRM councils to ensure that preparedness or precautionary measures were to be undertaken and response resources were on stand-by for possible mobilization.
“Please monitor coastal, upland and other high-risk areas for the possible effect of the typhoon and its associated hazards,” the memorandum, dated Dec. 15, said.
Meanwhile, the Antique Philippine Coast Guard Station in an advisory Wednesday announced that no vessel of any type or tonnage shall be allowed to sail except to take shelter. (PNA)
