Tropical Storm Ramil (international name: Fengshen) left at least six people dead and a fisherman missing as it cut through parts of the Visayas and Luzon over the weekend.
The storm caused torrential rains in several parts of Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, central and southern Luzon, and Bicol, forcing more than 22,000 people to evacuate, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Sunday.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Ramil was last spotted 85 kilometers (km) west northwest of Iba, Zambales, carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour (km/h) and gustiness of up to 80 km/h.
“On the forecast track, Ramil will continue moving west-northwestward or northwestward over the West Philippine Sea. It is forecast to exit the Philippine area of responsibility [on Monday] morning,” Pagasa said in its typhoon bulletin issued at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal (TCWS) No. 2 was raised over La Union, Pangasinan, Zambales, Tarlac, Pampanga, and Bataan provinces; while TCWS No. 1 was hoisted in other areas in Luzon, including Metro Manila.
First casualty
In Capiz province, content creator Mae Urdelas, 23, drowned when she slipped and was carried away by a strong current while crossing the creek at Barangay Malocloc Sur in Ivisan town around 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Her body was recovered by rescuers some three hours later, about a kilometer from where she fell, according to Malocloc Sur village chief Allan delos Santos.
In her last post on Facebook hours before she died, Urdelas wrote, “Tama na nga ulan (enough of the rains).”
In Quezon province’s Pitogo town, five members of a family, including a 5-month-old boy, died when a palm, or “buri,” tree fell on their hut at the height of the storm.
Police identified the victims only through their first names—Alberto, 66; his daughter Jean Andrea, 35; Jean’s husband, Alvin, 35; and the couple’s children, Nazareth, 11, and the infant Noeh. They were sleeping in their nipa hut in Barangay Cawayanin around 5:30 a.m. when the tree hit their house, pinning and crushing them. Pitogo was under TCWS No. 1 at the time of the incident.
In Eastern Samar province, a fisherman from Barangay Nena of San Julian town, identified as Venetio Pombo, 30, was reported missing when he failed to return home after he went fishing on Saturday, authorities reported.
On Sunday, two minors from Masbate province were rescued off Barangay Dalupinit in San Antonio, Northern Samar, after their fishing boat drifted due to rough seas and strong winds.
The rescued boys, aged 11 and 14, went fishing on Saturday as the storm raged.
No damage
Pagasa earlier reported that Ramil made landfall over Gubat, Sorsogon, at 4:10 p.m. on Saturday.
However, no major damage was reported in Gubat, according to Raden Dimaano, head of the disaster risk reduction and management office of Sorsogon.
He told the Inquirer that the storm brought only light to moderate rains and mild winds, which eased after about 30 minutes.
On the other hand, areas not directly in the storm’s path, like Capiz and Iloilo, reported more damage.
Some northern towns in Iloilo were flooded, while several roads in Capiz were rendered impassable, including a major highway connecting Roxas City and Panitan town. The storm also caused landslides in the Eastern Visayas region and flooded communities on Samar Island.
Almost 5,000 passengers and 1,516 rolling cargoes were stranded in different ports in Bicol, although sea travel had resumed in Matnog, Sorsogon, on Sunday, said the Office of Civil Defense.
Police in Luzon and parts of the Visayas have been placed on alert and ordered to assist in emergency response, said Philippine National Police acting chief Police Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. in a statement on Sunday.
“Our commanders on the ground were instructed to ensure the availability of manpower and other PNP resources for any eventuality, especially on the aspect of preemptive evacuation and search and rescue,” he said.