'Nando' moves closer to extreme northern Luzon

State weather forecasters on Saturday afternoon placed more provinces under Storm Signal No. 1 as tropical depression “Nando" continued to move toward northern Luzon. In its 5 p.m. weather bulletin, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Nando was last spotted 110 kilometers east-northeast of Casiguran, Aurora. When do we call a storm a storm? State weather forecasters use this guide when classifying weather disturbances visiting Philippine territory. 'Nando' has maximum winds of a tropical depression. Source: PagasaPagasa said the tropical depression maintained its strength as it packed maximum winds of 55 kilometers per hour near the center. Nando also picked up speed and was moving west-northwest at 15 kph. At its speed, Nando was expected to make a landfall in eastern Isabela at dawn Sunday, cross northern Luzon and be at about 40 km west of Laoag City in Ilocos Norte by Sunday afternoon.

Apart from Isabela and Cagayan, eight other areas in northern Luzon were added to the list of places where Storm Signal No.1 was hoisted, namely: • Babuyan Group • Ilocos Norte • Ilocos Sur • Apayao • Abra • Kalinga • Mt. Province • Ifugao Most of the areas under storm alert experienced heavy rains or stormy weather Saturday, reports said.

“It’s raining very hard here. It could cause heavy flooding again," public school teacher Loida T. Hernaez said in a text message Saturday afternoon from Tabuk in Kalinga.

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The storm warning in Aurora province has already been lifted. “This disturbance is expected to enhance the Southwest Monsoon and bring occasional to frequent rains over Western Visayas and the rest of Luzon," Pagasa said.

The weather bureau also advised people living in low-lying areas and near slopes to watch out for possible flashfloods and landslides. Nando is the third tropical cyclone to hit the country in September and the 14th for 2009, according to Pagasa. Around five to six more typhoons are expected to visit the country till yearend. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones every year. [See: Prepare for more typhoons, possible El Niňo, agencies told] 3rd in a row Tropical depression “Labuyo" (Dujuan), the first to hit the country in September, approached the Philippines early last week but changed course days later toward Japan, ultimately leaving Philippine territory by Sunday. Click on the table to find out more about the most destructive tropical cyclones ever to hit the Philippines in the last two decades.Three days later, on Wednesday, Labuyo was followed by tropical depression “Maring" (Mujigae), which along with the southwest monsoon submerged several provinces in central Luzon in raging floods. The government said that the death toll from Maring was placed at 11 as of Friday night: eight of them were from central Luzon, two from southern Luzon, and one from Ilocos. At least three remained missing, including two from the Ilocos region and one from Metro Manila. The National Disaster Coordinating Center said "Maring" affected at least 81,186 families or 364,953 people in 347 villages in 31 towns and two cities in Zambales, Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, and Laguna. Damage to property rose to P300.041 million, including P63.353 million in damage to infrastructure and P236.688 million in damage to agriculture. - GMANews.TV

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