(UPDATE 5) Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon are powerless, radio reports said Wednesday.
As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said that only 46 out of its 688 (6.7 %) distribution circuits and 32 out of 84 (38 %) sub-transmission lines have been restored.
“This translates to around 365,000 or 7.8% out of the 4.7 million Meralco customers to whom power has already been restored,” the power company said in an online update.
Meralco said the following areas will continue to experience power outage: portions of Laguna (Canlubang, Calamba, Lisp); Ternate, Cavite; Sta. Maria and Meycauayan Bulacan, and; portions of Metro Manila including Balintawak, Diliman, Kaybiga, Bagbaguin and Quezon City, among others.
Meralco said that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has declared a system-wide blackout as of 12:42 am of July 14.
“Restoration of power started at 3:24 am, after the strong winds of typhoon Basyang subsided. This came shortly after Kalayaan unit 4 was synchronized at 3:20 a.m.,” it said.
“Our crews have been working round the clock to restore power in affected areas. We would like to ensure first, too, that all obstructions have been cleared in some areas, like toppled trees and billboards, before we restore power to assure the safety of everyone. However, we are also constrained in our restoration work as some transmission facilities were affected by the strong winds. This results in limited power that we can distribute at the moment. We would, however, continue to coordinate with all concerned parties to be able to restore power at the soonest and most reasonable time possible,” Meralco External Communications Head Joe Zaldarriaga said.
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday (Manila time), Pagasa said tropical storm Basyang is located 150 km southwest of Iba, Zambales. It still packs maximum sustained winds of 95 kph and gustiness of up to 120 kph. It is also moving at 22 kph.
“Basyang had a direct hit in Metro Manila yesterday night and earlier. That’s why the winds were howling,” according to Pagasa’s Twitter account.
Pagasa said tropical storm Basyang is expected to be 600 km west of Iba, Zambales.
Storm warning signal number one is now up in Batangas, Lubang Island, Bataan, Zambales, Northern Mindoro, and Metro Manila.
Classes have been suspended in pre-, primary and high schools in the Metro. Some universities have also announced suspension of classes early Wednesday. Some public and private offices have also decided to close.
In a briefing aired over local radio, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III scolded officials of the state weather bureau for failing to give earlier warning about the changes in the direction of the typhoon Basyang.
Aquino has asked the state weather bureau to explain why there was no warning about the typhoon hitting Metro Manila late Tuesday night. Storm signal number 2 was only up in Metro Manila late Tuesday.
Pagasa director Prisco Nilo later clarified that President Aquino was not angry but just wanted the agency to improve its weather forecasting methods.
Power went out before midnight, as typhoon Basyang hits Central Luzon.
“This is the last time that this is going to happen,” Aquino told officials of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
He has called for an emergency meeting with the National Disaster Coordinating Council to assess the damage caused by the typhoon.
Typhoon Basyang ripped through the country, leaving a trail of wreckage in Manila and sweeping shanties into the sea, officials and witnesses said Wednesday.
Uprooted trees, fallen electric posts, debris can be seen in the streets of Metro Manila.
The official civil defense office said 19 fishermen from the eastern island of Catanduanes had failed to return home and were missing at sea after the typhoon hit the area late Tuesday.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities but communication systems were down amid the chaos of the typhoon’s aftermath, and disaster relief officials were still trying to determine the extent of the damage.
Manila’s overhead railway system was also shut down due to the power outage. Knee-high floods and fallen trees were still blocking some roads in and around the capital, obstructing traffic.
Shanty towns erected by squatters on the coastal areas near Manila were swept away, leaving the shocked, drenched residents to scavenge scrap wood to build makeshift shelters, according to an AFP reporter there.
Several flights in and out of Manila were cancelled as the typhoon was passing but airport officials said their operations had returned to normal after the storm passed.
Typhoon Basyang (Conson), packing maximum gusts of 120 kilometres (74 miles) an hour, hit the eastern side of Luzon late Tuesday and crossed the island before exiting before dawn Wednesday, heading west into the South China Sea at 22 kilometres an hour.
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