By Aaron Sheldrick and Francisco Alcuaz Jr.
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines started evacuations as Typhoon Parma headed for Luzon, where recovery efforts continue after Tropical Storm Ketsana devastated Manila and other parts of the island six days ago, leaving 280 people dead.
Authorities began moving people from provinces north and southeast of Manila into shelters, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said in an interview on ABS-CBN television.
Parma’s center was 564 kilometers (290 miles) east of the city of Daet in southeastern Luzon at 2 a.m. Manila time today, according to the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The typhoon is forecast to make landfall after 8 a.m. tomorrow.
The typhoon is forecast to bring more rain to areas already devastated by Ketsana, which earlier this week left more than 100 people dead in Vietnam and Cambodia. In Indonesia, rescue workers are searching for survivors in Padang in Sumatra, where an earthquake two days ago left 230 people dead. In the South Pacific, a recovery operation is underway after a tsunami killed more than 150.
“It is almost unprecedented for any region to experience so many disasters over such a short period of time,” United Nations Under-Secretary-General Noeleen Heyzer said in a statement. “The disasters of the past week remind us that Asia Pacific is the worlds’ disaster hot spot.”
Parma’s winds decreased to 222 kilometers per hour from 241 yesterday. The typhoon remains a Category 4 storm, the second- strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and is forecast to regain strength before making landfall, according to the center.
Preparing for Landfall
The Philippines Navy assembled a task force in northern Luzon to prepare for Parma’s landfall, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a phone interview yesterday. The Air Force will send trucks and rubber boats to facilitate evacuations, Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gerardo Zamudio said.
The Philippines Navy assembled a task force in northern Luzon to prepare for Parma’s landfall, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a phone interview yesterday. The Air Force will send trucks and rubber boats to facilitate evacuations, Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gerardo Zamudio said.
The Philippines weather agency, which refers to Parma as Pepeng, raised its No. 2 storm signal for areas of southeastern Luzon today, meaning winds of between 60 and 100 kph are expected.
A gale warning was issued for islands to the southeast of Luzon.
Ketsana blew across Luzon on Sept. 26 dumping a month’s worth of rain in six hours and flooding most of Manila and surrounding areas.
More than 3 million people were affected by Ketsana and 676,235 are in evacuation centers, the Philippines disaster council said in its latest report. Forty-two people are missing.
The Philippine government has declared a “state of calamity” for the Manila metropolitan region and other parts of Luzon island as well as Mindoro island to the south.
Ketsana smashed into central Vietnam on Sept. 29 as a typhoon with winds of 167 kph, killing at least 92 people in the country. Nineteen people were missing.
The storm left at least 14 people dead in Cambodia after crossing Vietnam, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.
Ketsana is the name of a tree in Laos, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names in use for Pacific storms on its Web site. Parma is the name of a ham and chicken liver dish in Macau.
To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; Francisco Alcuaz Jr. in Manila at falcuaz@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 1, 2009 20:17 EDT
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