NDRRMC Units on ‘Blue Alert’ Status Due to Typhoon ‘Dodong’

(PNA) – With the entry of typhoon “Dodong” in the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Thursday it has placed on “blue alert” status all of its units in the provinces lying on the path of the weather disturbance.

According to Mina Marasigan, spokesperson of NDRRMC, “blue alert” status requires half of the agency’s personnel to be ready for contingencies.

”There will be members of the National Council who will be rendering duty here at the Operation Center just to ensure the monitoring of the movement of typhoon ‘Dodong’ will be in place,” Marasigan said.

She added that as soon as they received word that tropical depression “Noul” would enter PAR, the NDRRMC already advised the regional councils to begin monitoring its movement.

”Today, we called for a pre-disaster assessment core group meeting… And the PAGASA team has already briefed our vice chairs for preparedness, response, and rehabilitation and recovery that we have to now look into based on the projection of PAGASA,” she said.

Marasigan said that based on PAGASA’s projection on typhoon “Dodong,” the Samar provinces will experience rains by Friday and the Bicol region by Saturday. The typhoon is expected to make a landfall in Cagayan-Isabela area on Sunday.

”We are now providing more information to our local councils there so that they may not only put on standby their response teams but also preposition their goods already should there be a need for a preventive evacuation,” Marasigan said.

She noted that based on the latest PAGASA bulletin, “the typhoon has slightly intensified as it nears land. But it is expected to slightly weaken as it makes landfall and because normally, a typhoon with such intensity slightly weakens due to the presence of mountains when it hits land. Probably as it exits PAR, it could gain strength as it reaches waters again.”

Marasigan also said that Region 2 is already prepared on the possible onslaught of typhoon “Dodong” in the area.

”Actually, they have already conducted regional council meetings preparing for the landfall of typhoon ‘Dodong.’ Also in Region 2, there are areas experiencing dry spell or some areas are experiencing drought. So there are people there, farmers are actually welcoming rain in that area,” she said.

”But we are still warning them that we have to warn our local councils that should there be a need for preventive evacuation, it shall be enforced to keep the safety of our constituents there,” she added.

Marasigan said the projection of the amount of rainfall for this typhoon is heavy to intense.

”That is why we are already requesting local councils to put on standby their response teams, to put on alert their constituents because there might be a need for preemptive evacuation. Because rainfall with this amount could probably cause flashfloods, we already told them that they should already be on standby so that they could easily evacuate their places should there be a need to do it,” she added. (PNA) SCS/CLTC/PFN