The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) raised Public Storm Warning Signal No. 3 over Batanes province on Thursday afternoon.
In its 5:00 pm update, PAGASA upgraded the storm warning over the group of islands even after Typhoon “Lawin” lost a little strength while hovering over the East Philippine Sea.
The state weather bureau spotted the typhoon at about 210 kms east of Basco, Batanes while packing a maximum sustained winds of 185 kph near its center and a gustiness of up to 220 kph.
“Winds of 101 to 185 kph is expected in at least 18 hours (in Batanes group of islands),” PAGASA said.
It explained that such wind strength may cause heavy damage to agriculture, uproot some large trees, unroof or destroy nipa and cogon houses as well as disrupt power and communication services.
At the same time, PAGASA maintained Signal No. 2 over Cagayan province including Calayan and Babuyan groups of islands, wehre 61 to 100 kph wins will be experiences in at least 24 hours.
The typhoon will adversely affect rice and corn and blow away some old galvanized iron roofing in the affected areas, the state weather bureau explained.
“Residents living in coastal areas under public storm warning signal numbers 3 and 2 are alerted against big waves or storm surges generated by this typhoon,” PAGASA reminded.
It added the estimated heavy to intense rainfall amount will be from 10 to 25 mm per hour in the areas within the 750 km diameter of the Typhoon.
Meanwhile, Signal. No 1 is still hoisted over Ilocos Norte, Kalinga, Apayao, Abra, and Isabela, where 30 to 60 kph winds will blow.
Noting a change in its speed from 11 kph to 13 kph moving in a northwestward direction, PAGASA expected “Lawin” to reach 270 kms north of Basco by Friday afternoon.
Weather forecasters also expressed optimism that the typhoon will get farther away from the country to be at 560 kms north mortheast of Basco by Saturday afternoon.
“Fishing boats and other small seacrafts are advised not to venture out into the eastern seaboard of Central Luzon, the seaboards of Southern Luzon and of Visayas due to big waves generated by Typhoon “Lawin” and Southwest Monsoon,” PAGASA advised.
Amid questions hurled against its early partial proclamation, the poll body on Friday named three more winning Senate candidates even before it completed its official count.
