People from slum areas escape the summer heat by swimming in the waters of Manila Bay yesterday, despite warnings issued by city and national authorities prohibiting swimming due to pollution in the bay. Typhoon Maysak is forecast to strike at the tail-end of a long Easter holiday that saw millions of Filipinos flock to the beaches to escape the heat. Right: Stranded passengers take a break near a ticketing booth at a port in Marinduque Island after ferry services were stopped in preparation for the approaching storm.

Manila Times/Quezon City
 
Around 24,000 coastal residents were being evacuated as a precaution from approaching tropical storm Chedeng yesterday, officials said, even as experts downgraded the threat from what was at one point a super typhoon.
Isabela and Aurora provinces were placed under Storm Signal No 3 as tropical storm Chedeng (international name: Maysak) continued moving over the Philippine Sea yesterday afternoon, the state weather bureau PAGASA said.
In anticipation of Chedeng’s effects upon landfall in the northeast coast of Luzon, government officials earlier yesterday said some 24,000 people, particularly in Quezon province, were being evacuated.
“We plan to move people out of coastal villages,” Nigel Lontoc, a senior civil defence official for the region, said.
In a news briefing, weather forecaster Jun Galang said they expect the storm to make landfall today morning.
He said Chedeng remains on track to make landfall over the Isabela-Aurora area. PAGASA’s 5pm advisory showed Chedeng may make landfall over Southern Isabela today morning.
Remaining under Storm Signal No 2 are: southern Cagayan, Kalinga, Mt Province, Ifugao, Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, and Catanduanes.
Signal no 1 remained up in the rest of Cagayan including Babuyan Island, Apayao, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, La Union, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Quezon, Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur.
Chedeng which days earlier hit several small islands in the Pacific Ocean, has weakened into a 115kp storm, state weather forecaster Jun Galang told Agence France Presse.
It was also possible the storm would further weaken to between 65-85kph by the time it is projected to hit the northeast coast of Luzon today morning, he added.
“At those lower intensities, we can eliminate the threat posed by storm surges,” he said, referring to giant tsunami-like waves that had prompted local officials to evacuate coastal villages in the area.
Such waves caused many of the fatalities when Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) struck the country in November 2013, leaving more than 7,350 dead or missing.
Despite its reduced strength, Galang said Chedeng was still forecast to bring “moderate to occasionally intense” rain across a 400km front on Luzon’s mountainous northern section overnight yesterday.
Even light or moderate rain, if sustained for several hours, can bring floods and landslides in a locality, he noted.
The areas potentially affected have a combined population of about 5mn people, Social Welfare Undersecretary Vilma Cabrera told a news conference in Manila yesterday.
About 20 typhoons and storms hit the Philippines each year, many of them deadly, but such weather disturbances are rare in April, the height of the tropical Asian nation’s dry season.
Chedeng is forecast to strike at the tail-end of a long Easter holiday that saw millions of people flock to the beaches to escape the heat.
Cabrera said about 10,000 tourists were warned Friday to stay away from the beaches of Aurora province northeast of Manila. Galang said the eye of the storm was tracked 365km southeast of Aurora’s coast at 3pm yesterday.
It was expected to hit land there between 6am and 10am today, he added.
“We plan to move people out of coastal villages,” Nigel Lontoc, a senior civil defence official for the region, told AFP earlier.
In all, some 24,000 people from the coastal province of Aurora, where the storm is projected to make landfall Sunday, would be evacuated, he said.
“We have asked the tourists (in Aurora) to stay in their hotels and avoid the water,” he added.
Retired army general Jovie Narcise, who is visiting the Aurora town of Dingalan, said the skies began to darken there in the afternoon as big waves pounded the shore.
Small outrigger fishing boats had been pulled up and stored about 30m away from the water to keep them from being swept out to sea, he said.
“There are lots of tourists arriving in the area but they are going to resorts situated on higher ground,” Narcise told AFP.
Maysak last week ravaged the Federated States of Micronesia, leaving at least five dead, thousands homeless and crops destroyed.
Interior secretary Manuel Mar Roxas 2nd yesterday urged mayors of towns and cities threatened by Chedeng to execute preemptive evacuation plans to ensure the safety of local and foreign tourists, as well as people living in hazard-prone areas.
“We are calling on all mayors to be on alert as we do not want any casualties once the storm strikes,” Roxas, who is also vice chairman for Preparedness of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC), said.
The NDRRMC had already placed 15 areas under “red alert” status which calls for preemptive evacuation. These are Abra, Apayao, Aurora, Benguet, Cagayan, Ifugao, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Kalinga, La Union, Mountain Province, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, and Catanduanes.
Five provinces were placed under “orange alert” status which calls for preparation for preemptive evacuation, namely Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, and Quezon. Placed under “yellow alert status” which calls for readiness are the provinces of Bulacan, Masbate, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.
As early as Monday the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has alerted local officials in 24 provinces in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4A and 5 of the potential adverse impact of the storm.
By Friday, the DILG had started sending advisories calling on local officials to execute pre-emptive evacuation plans. Around 20 LGUs in 5 provinces have began to implement pre-emptive evacuation plans upon the DILG alert.