'Pepeng' pummels Cagayan, topples trees and power lines

After keeping the nation guessing for days about its Philippine destination, the strongest typhoon in three years made landfall in northern Cagayan province. According to Pagasa, the eye of the storm was 40 km northeast of Cagayan's largest city Tuguegarao at 4 p.m. and heading toward Aparri. Packing maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour, Pepeng uprooted trees and toppled power lines in the provincial capital of Tuguegarao City, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) official Bonifacio Cuarteros. Cuarteros also said local officials were reporting destruction in many areas. "We pray that we won't have a worse outcome, but with this kind of situation, we cannot really say," he said. Chaos Aileen Torres, administrator of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) in Cagayan, said her office was getting reports from Red Cross volunteers that "chaos was all over" places in the path of the typhoon. "The winds and rains are so strong. Power is out and we are relying on generators," she said on TV and radio. "Our volunteers were unable to penetrate some areas even in Tuguegarao because of floods." Chito Castro, regional director of Office of Civil Defense, said no casualties have been reported so far. He urged residents to just stay where they are as long as their homes are not threatened by the typhoon. Earlier in the day, weather forecasters said Pepeng was due to strike Cagayan on Saturday night, instead of hitting north-central Luzon on Saturday afternoon, as earlier forecast. But the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said in its 1:30 p.m. typhoon update Saturday that Pepeng was packing sustained winds that had also weakened slightly, to 175 kilometers per hour, down from 195 kph on Friday. Also bracing itself was Taiwan, directly north of Luzon, which issued a storm warning and began moving people out of villages in the southern county of Kaohsiung, said local official Lin Chun-chieh. Flash flooding from the last typhoon to hit the Kaohsiung killed about 700 people in August. On Sept. 26, tropical storm "Ondoy" (Ketsana) damaged the homes of more than 3 million people in the Philippines, particularly in Metro Manila and the provinces of Rizal, Laguna and Bulacan. Ondoy caused the worst flooding in 40 years, killing over 288. It went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos. It was part of more than a week of destruction in the Asia-Pacific region that has claimed more than 1,500 lives so far: an earthquake Wednesday in Indonesia; a tsunami Tuesday in the Samoan islands; and Typhoon Ketsana across Southeast Asia. Pre-emptive evacuations As Pepeng continued to move toward northeast Luzon on Saturday, officials said hundreds of families have been evacuated in low-lying places in Cagayan in compliance with an order of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Forced evacuations were recommended by the National Disaster Coordinating Center (NDCC), to avoid a repeat of what happened when storm Ondoy swamped Metro Manila and nearby provinces with record rainfall that caused unprecedented flooding. Cagayan officials could not immediately say how many people were evacuated there, but said pre-emptive evacuations were also carried out in some towns. According to the NDCC, more than 62,000 people had been pre-emptively evacuated as of Saturday morning, from Cagayan Valley to Central Luzon, Southern Luzon and the Bicol Region. At least 2,676 people were stranded in the Bicol region Friday and Saturday as ferry boats were stopped by the Coast Guard from sailing as the typhoon churned across the Pacific Ocean east of Luzon. Joseph Holandes Ubalde, Andreo C. Calonzo, GMANews.Tv, with an AP report