lepas ketsana, parma, now typhoon Lupit lak serang philippines!!

amazed

Tuesday October 20, 2009
Philippines starts evacuation ahead of new typhoon

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines began evacuating thousands of people in northern areas prone to floods and landslides on Tuesday ahead of a powerful typhoon that has gained strength over the Pacific, officials said.

Typhoon Lupit, which means "fierce" in Filipino, was expected to make landfall around the far northern tip of the Luzon region by Thursday and dump more rain on typhoon-weary provinces, said Prisco Nilo, head of the weather bureau.
Vehicles travel along the damaged Halsema Highway after landslides triggered by typhoon Parma in Benguet province, north of Manila October 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Stringer)

The Philippines is still recovering from two recent typhoons -- Ketsana and Parma -- which brought record-high rainfall that flooded the capital Manila and large swathes of farmland in northern provinces. More than 850 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

"Lupit is expected to be a much stronger typhoon than the two weather systems we had in the last four weeks," Nilo told reporters.

Lupit, a category 4 typhoon with centre winds of 195 kph (121 mph) and with gusts of up to 230 kph, was 890 km (553 miles) east of northern Cagayan province, the weather bureau said.

Thousands of residents in northern coastal and mountain areas had started to move to safer areas, said Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the national disaster agency.

"Our troops in the field are assisting local government units in the pre-emptive evacuation of disaster-prone areas in the north," Torres told reporters.

The Philippine air force had also airlifted food, water and medicine to remote areas.

Ketsana and Parma damaged or destroyed more than 27 billion pesos ($580 million) in crops and infrastructure. [ID:nSP147596]




simpati aku ngan filipino.... ujian Allah pada worang2 sinun... hah!!!!

amazed

Tuesday October 20, 2009

Prayers offered as typhoon nears Philippines



MANILA, Philippines (AP): The Philippines put seven northern coastal areas on alert Tuesday for fast-approaching Typhoon Lupit, as the church offered prayers that the storm will spare the battered country still reeling from deadly floods and landslides.

Lupit is forecast to make landfall Thursday in the extreme north of the main island of Luzon with winds of 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour and gusts of up to 143 mph (230 kph), the weather bureau reported.

The third storm in a month was projected to slice through northeastern Cagayan and neighboring provinces toward the South China Sea, dumping heavy rainfall in and around the mountainous north where mudslides set off by back-to-back storms since Sept. 26 killed more than 850 people.

The government was moving fast to prevent any loss of life this time, stocking up on food and clothes and moving residents out of harm's way.

"These days we no longer have a problem convincing residents to evacuate," said Loreto Espineli, police chief in Benguet province where 300 people died early this month.

Village heads were using megaphones to warn about the impending typhoon, and sirens will be sounded once it makes landfall, Espineli told The Associated Press.

"We will force them to leave if they don't want to," he said. "It is easier to evacuate people than to dig for bodies after a mudslide."

The dominant Roman Catholic Church published a full-page prayer for deliverance from typhoons in a national broadsheet Tuesday.

Lamenting that "global warming is upon us," the prayer asks God to spare Filipinos "from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made."

"The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing, and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference," said the prayer, which is mandated to be read at Mass.

Lupit - a Filipino word for cruel - will likely spare the capital, Manila, which was submerged in the worst flooding in 40 years after Tropical Storm Ketsana unleashed heavy rains Sept. 26, said the head of the Philippine weather agency, Frisco Nilo.

Ketsana and Typhoon Parma on Oct. 3 killed 858 people and inundated the homes of more than 7 million.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has blamed extreme weather caused by climate change but her critics say the calamity was magnified by poor city planning and millions of squatters living along riverbanks and blocking waterways with their shanties.

The urban poor, sources of cheap labor and votes during elections, make up for almost half of Manila's 12 million people.

amazed

Lupit semakin menghampiri Filipina

MANILA 20 Okt. - Sebanyak tujuh kawasan pantai utara Filipina diletakkan dalam keadaan berjaga-jaga hari ini ekoran Taufan Lupit yang sedang bertiup dengan laju menghampiri kawasan utara negara ini.

Lupit diramalkan melanda Filipina pada Khamis ini di bahagian utara pulau utama di Luzon dengan angin bertiup dengan kelajuan antara 195 kilometer sejam sehingga 230 kilometer sejam, lapor biro cuaca.

Taufan ketiga dalam masa tempoh sebulan itu diramal melanda timur laut Cagayan dan wilayah bersebelahan, menurunkan hujan lebat di kawasan pergunungan di utara dan sekitarnya.

Dua taufan sebelum ini sejak 26 September lalu, turut melanda kawasan yang sama menyebabkan kejadian tanah runtuh mengorbankan lebih 850 orang.

Kerajaan bertindak pantas membuat persiapan bagi mengelak sebarang kehilangan jiwa kali ini dengan mengumpul bantuan makanan dan pakaian serta memindahkan penduduk keluar dari kawasan terbabit.

"Kali ini kita tiada masalah untuk meyakinkan penduduk supaya berpindah," kata ketua polis Loreto Espineli dari wilayah Benguet, yang mana 300 orang telah mati awal bulan ini.

Katanya, penghulu-penghulu kampung menggunakan pembesar suara untuk memberi amaran tentang taufan yang kian menghampiri dan siren amaran akan dibunyikan sebaik-baik sahaja ia melanda.

"Kami akan paksa mereka untuk meninggalkan kawasan ini jika mereka enggan. Adalah lebih mudah untuk memindahkan penduduk berbanding mengorek mayat selepas tanah runtuh," katanya.

Lupit yang bermakna kejam dalam bahasa Filipina, mungkin tidak akan melanda Manila, yang sebelum ini tenggelam dalam banjir paling buruk dalam tempoh 40 tahun apabila Taufan Ketsana melanda pada 26 September lalu. - AP