Fastcrafts bound for Southern Leyte detoured and returned to Pier 1 due to presence of huge waves in the seas between Bohol and Cebu | CDN PHOTO Junjie Mendoza
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) placed Northern Cebu, including Bantayan Island, under Storm Signal No. 1 as Tropical Depression Urduja is expected to make landfall this evening at Northern Samar.
Under tropical storm signal No. 1, winds with speeds up to 60 kilometers per hour are present and may lead to slight damages to houses, and other infrastructures.
The severe weather bulletin issued by the state weather bureau spotted the eye of Urduja, which has weakened from a tropical storm to a tropical depression, at 140 kilometers east of Guiauan, Eastern Samar.
It has maximum sustained winds at 65 kilometers per hour and moving west at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour.
Other areas in the Visayas placed under Signal No. 1 are Southern Leyte, Biliran Island, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Capiz, Northern Iloilo, and Aklan.
As of 8 a.m., there have been four canceled boat trips in Cebu City due to Urduja.
The list below are the following trips that were canceled as of 8 p.m.:
- Pier 1 to Ormoc
- Hagnaya to Masbate
- Pier 1 to Camotes
- Camotes to Ormoc
According to Jerome Cayabyab, station commander of the Philippine Coastguard, as of 8 a.m. today, Pag-asa issued a signal no. 1 in northern Cebu.
He added that they have signaled their coastguard substations in the northern area to warn vessels not to travel due to bad weather conditions.