Cagayan, Isabela, brace for Tropical Storm Egay

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CAGAYAN VALLEY, Philippines  (UPDATED) – While Cagayan and Isabela braced for Tropical Storm Egay, forecast to make landfall in the area on Saturday night, July 4, or Sunday morning, July 5, officials in both provinces said no preemptive evacuation have been carried out in their areas as of Saturday.

Isabela Governor Faustino Dy III told Rappler on Saturday that the 4 coastal towns in the province have not reported preemptive evacuations yet, but the no sail policy and liquor ban have been in effect since Friday.

In Cagayan, the Philippine Coast Guard in Santa Ana town alerted fishermen and local ferries not to sail due to the threat of rough seas.

Bonifacio Cuarteros, Cagayan’s provincial disaster agency coordinator, said their calculations showed that Tropical Storm Egay might hit Santa Ana on Sunday, the same spot where Typhoon Dodong made landfall in May.

As of 7 pm on Saturday, Cuarteros said that most parts of Cagayan only experienced light to moderate rains without strong winds.

‘Hoping for more rain’

Cagayan and Isabela officials are hoping that Egay will bring more rain to the province, which are still experiencing a dry spell.

“Most parts in the Northern Cagayan lacks water in their irrigation canals and we are asking to the Lord just enough rain,” Cuarteros said.

Dy said several towns in Isabela continue to suffer from the dry spell, which has destroyed corn and rice crops.

In San Mariano town in Isabela province, the local government unit has declared a state of calamity to to mitigate the impact of the dry spell.

Dy said around 4,000 hectares of cornfields are affected in the town, threatening the livelihood of farmers and the Isabela economy as a whole.

NGCP: Preparations in place

Meanwhile, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines has given its assurance that it has “implemented the necessary preparations and precautions to minimize the impact of Tropical Storm Egay on transmission operations and facilities.”

The power system operator and transmission service provider said such preparations include “ensuring the reliability of communications equipment, availability of hardware materials and supplies necessary for the repair of damages to facilities, as well as the positioning of line crews in strategic areas, to facilitate immediate restoration work.”

“NGCP’s Integrated Disaster Action Plan (IDAP) prescribes these and other procedures to ensure the readiness of all power transmission facilities expected to be affected by the passage of the weather disturbance,” it said. – Rappler.com