u Tens of thousands flee: As millions of people struggle to recover from a deadly typhoon which tore a swathe across Southeast Asia, a stronger storm – Typhoon Parma, with winds gusting up to 230 kph – is expected to hit the Philippines today. By Jay Gotera and Leon Manaig MANILA – Tens of thousands of villagers Friday fled the likely path of a powerful typhoon expected to make landfall Saturday, as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a nationwide “state of calamity.” Weather officials feared that typhoon Pepeng, international codenamed Parma, may develop into a “super-typhoon and cause a second disaster just days after a storm killed nearly 300 people in and around Manila. The officials expected Pepeng, packing sustained winds of up to 120 mph (195 kph) and gusts up to 140 mph (230 kph), to make landfall near northeastern Quirino and Isabela provinces on Luzon by Saturday unless it changed direction “It's gathering strength into a category 5 typhoon,” chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said, adding it could be the one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country since November 2006 when Typhoon Durian left death and destruction in the central Philippines. Cruz said Pepeng appears to be carrying less rain but stronger winds than the earlier storm, Ondoy, internationally known as Ketsana, meaning the flood risk may be lower. But a vast swath of the northern Philippines, including Mentro Manila, is already flooded from Ondoy, and any more rain would pose more danger. Declaring the “state of calamity,” Arroyo ordered six provincial governments to evacuate residents from flood-and landslide-prone areas in the path of the storm. The calamity alert extends the one applied to Manila and 25 provinces hit by Ondoy. The declaration frees up funds to respond to emergencies. Ondoy caused Lake Laguna on the edge of Manila to rise by about 3.3 feet (1.2 meters) and there is a danger of the water spilling over into districts near Manila housing some 100,000 people, Ed Manda, general manager of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), warned. He said the water level Friday at the lake was between 14 to 14.5 meters, adding that the average rise in level should only be 0.28 meters a month. “We have to evacuate those in the danger zone,“ Manda said at a press briefing, referring to the residents in the low-lying areas of Cainta, Taytay, Pasig, Taguig and Muntinlupa. He admitted that they are still having a difficult time evacuating some “hard-headed” residents. LLDA Friday recommended the evacuation of about 100,000 residents near the Laguna de Bay for fear that Pepeng could unleash massive rainfall. Meanwhile, heavy rain continued to drench mountainous coastal regions in the northeast Friday as heavily populated areas still remained inundated from the worst flooding in 40 years. Ondoy wrought a trail of destruction across four Southeast Asian countries, killing at least 422, including 293 in the Philippines, 99 in Vietnam and 14 in Cambodia. In Laos, at least 16 people died and 100 were missing. National Disaster Coordinating Council chief Gilbert Teodoro said children and minors can be evacuated from Pepeng's path by force, but adults will be given information to make their own decision. “There is some resistance because they don't want to leave their homes behind for fear of looting,” Melchito Castro, the disaster response chief in one threatened district, the Cagayan Valley, said. “If they can't be persuaded, we will be forced to get all the children and minors.” In Albay province alone, almost 50,000 people were evacuated Thursday and Friday with the help of the police and military trucks, said Cedric Daep, a top provincial disaster official. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) suspended classes Friday in seven Luzon regions in anticipation of Pepeng. Officials said the commission suspended classes for the rest of the day in colleges and universities in regions 1 (Ilocos Region), 2 (Cagayan Valley), 3 (Central Luzon), 4a (Calabarzon), 4b (Mimaropa), 5 (Bicol Region), and CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region). Classes on all levels had been suspended this week in several areas in Luzon, including Metro Manila, due to tropical storm “Ondoy.” Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the Department of Education plans to get the school calendar back on track by having classes resume Monday, although he said the DepEd would still examine how “Pepeng” will affect the country. “If there was no threat from Pepeng we would have normalized the school calendar. This vacation cannot go on like this. But now we will have to wait for the effects of “Pepeng” this weekend before we decide when to resume classes,” he said in an interview on radio dzXL. Lapus said his department has already scrapped the semestral break in the last week of October for make-up classes. The Department of Social Welfare and Development has told Arroyo that people in evacuation centers were stressed and becoming unruly and hostile toward the government. In a report, Ester Turingan of the DSWD central office in Manila, said evacuees, mainly the elderly and young children, were growing restless due to hunger, stress and depression. The Philippines is hit by as many as 20 major storms a year and is well practiced at battening down. Typhoons in the region are most common and usually most powerful from August to November.
