AT least one person was reported dead and another missing in Cagayan province in northern Philippines as tropical depression Maymay brought continuous rains despite staying almost stationary over the Philippine Sea and away from land, local authorities reported on Wednesday.
The Cagayan provincial information office, in a statement on its Facebook page, said the fatality was from the town of Buguey. Search operations, meanwhile, are ongoing for a missing fisherman from Sta. Ana.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported 1,210 families affected by flooding in six towns.
Several bridges and road sections were impassable while some parts of Allacapan town lost power supply, the provincial government said.
Cagayan Gov. Manuel N. Mamba issued a reminder to local officials, particularly mayors, that their physical presence in their areas is necessary as disaster preparedness and response measures are rolled out.
“Our problems are localized, that is why mayors should be in their areas, these disaster months are threatening,” he said in mixed English and Filipino, referring to the last months of the year.
Emergency response teams were on full alert for more potential flooding as the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) announced it will release water from the dam in Magat River, a major tributary of the Cagayan River.
In an advisory on Wednesday morning, NIA said it will start releasing water by 4:30 p.m. at an initial “volume of 200 cubic meters per second that may be increased based on the volume of rainfall at the Magat Watershed” due to tropical depression Maymay.
A low pressure area that could intensify into a storm before the end of the week was trailing tropical depression Maymay, the 13th typhoon to enter the country this year, according to state weather bureau PAGASA.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, PAGASA said Maymay had started moving westward, maintaining its maximum sustained winds of 45 kilometers per hour (km/h) with gusts of up to 55 km/h.
It was 180 km east of Casiguran, Aurora and expected “to deteriorate into a remnant low within the next 12 hours,” the weather agency said.
PAGASA warned of moderate to heavy with at times intense rains until Thursday morning in Cagayan, the northern portion of Isabela, Apayao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, and Ifugao.
Light to moderate with at times heavy rains were also expected over Ilocos Region, and the rest of Cagayan Valley and Cordillera Administrative Region.
Meanwhile, the incoming low pressure area was about 1,980 km east of northern Luzon as of Wednesday morning. — MSJ