With the weather improving and the two-day sea travel suspension of sea vessels in Cebu ports lifted, these passengers waiting for ships to sail on Dec. 28 are most likely on their way to their respective destinations.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
USMAN WEAKENS; SEA TRIPS’ SUSPENSION LIFTED
Cebu will welcome New Year’s Day with cloudy skies with sunny periods as Tropical Depression Usman, the last weather disturbance to enter the country this year, weakened into a low pressure area (LPA) on Saturday (Dec. 29).
Engineer Alfredo Quiblat Jr., Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration Visayas (Pagasa-Visayas) chief, said Cebu would experience fair weather in the next four days or mostly cloudy skies with sunny periods.
“Much improved na ang atong weather condition. Isolated nalang ang atong gipaabot na pag-ulan ug makita na nato ang adlaw (Our weather condition has improved. We can only experience isolated rainshowers and we can see the sun),” Quiblat said in a phone interview on Saturday.
Isolated rains will also be experienced due to localized thunderstorms, he added.
As for the LPA, Quiblat said the weather disturbance only brought light to moderate intermittent rains in the tip of northern Cebu where the LPA traversed at about 8 a.m.
Ferdie Mendez of Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) said there had been no reported casualties when the LPA traversed Cebu on Saturday morning.
But on Friday evening, Mendez said, a portion of the provincial road in Barangay Labangon in Tabogon town in northern Cebu had collapsed after the heavy rains eroded the soil.
With the improved weather condition, the Philippine Coast Guard in Central Visayas (PCG-7) also lifted the suspension of sea trips which had been in place for two days because of the effects of TD Usman and had stranded more than a thousand passengers in Cebu and Bohol ports.
Quiblat said that the LPA, which was previously categorized as TD Usman, was the last weather disturbance to enter the country this year.
Quiblat said the LPA was last seen 60 kilometers east of Romblon, Romblon, at 3 p.m. Saturday and would exit Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) by Sunday or Monday.
Despite the expected exit of the LPA, Quiblat warned small fishing vessels traversing the seaboards of Samar and Leyte about a gale warning in the area as the sea conditions there would be rough to very rough due to the intensified northeast monsoon or amihan.
He said that wave heights in the area could reach up to 4.5 meters high.