DAVAO CITY—Mindanao is keeping a tight watch over Tropical Storm Basyang, earlier projected to trek on the path of Typhoon Vinta that hit the area in December last year, bringing torrential rains and flooded a wide swath of eastern and northern Mindanao.
Although the typhoon swerved toward Central Visayas, it was not until a big part of Mindanao was placed on storm signal No. 2 in Northern Mindanao and No. 1 in the mideastern section of the island.
Typhoon Basyang entered the Philippines through the Surigao area as projected, but above the forecast path along Misamis Oriental.
The weather station Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) information bulletin said the center of Basyang was located over the northeastern part of Bohol Sea or near the southern coast of Southern Leyte, about 46 kilometers (km) west of Surigao City, Surigao del Norte.
It was about 135 km east of Tagbilaran City, Bohol, in the Visayas.
It was still monitored at packing 65 km per hour (kph) wind on the average with gustiness
reaching 85 kph.
It was a relief for many in Mindanao, which is not used to typhoons, until this decade.
On Monday the Pagasa raised storm signals in 18 of Mindanao’s 27 provinces, and while Davao City, for instance, was not in the storm advisory, its local officials and school authorities announced as early as Monday to their students and faculty to stay home on Tuesday.
Compostela Valley’s disaster-response unit went into a 24-hour monitoring of its barangays, but it did not call for preemptive evacuation following indications of only a slight typhoon impact.
The province was among the heavily affected provinces, along with Davao Oriental, when the second-deadliest typhoon to enter Mindanao, Typhoon Pablo, entered through the two provinces and exited to Northern Mindanao toward the Visayas. It left more than 1,500 dead or missing in the two provinces, with the bulk of the casualties accounted for by the town of New Bataan in a catastrophic mudslide in December 2012.
On Monday the weather bureau said Basyang was expected to weaken into a tropical depression as it moved westward at a reduced speed of 28 kph. “Its center shall be over the western part of Sulu Sea by Wednesday morning.”
But Basyang would still bring moderate to extreme rains with thunderstorms and gusty winds across the Bicol region, Romblon, Palawan, the Visayas and Northern Mindanao, the Pagasa said.
This would bring additional relief, at least to fishermen in Compostela Valley, which received fish fingerlings last year.
Some 2,758,880 fingerlings were given to fishermen, which included 172,000 fingerlings of the carp and tilapia species, for the communal seeding to upgrade the genetic potential of fishpond fishes, 404,000 fingerlings provided by the Provincial Fresh Water Hatchery in Barangay Libasan of Nabunturan town, Provincial Agiculturist Officer Dr. Rolando Simene said.
The big batch of the fingerlings was given by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Provincial Office in Nabunturan.