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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Saturday, October 21, 2017
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ILOILO City – Several boat trips from here to Bacolod City and vice versa were suspended since Thursday afternoon following a gale warning from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
A gale is a strong wind from 50 kph to 102 kph in the Beaufort Wind Force Scale, an empirical measure for describing wind speed based mainly on observed sea conditions.
A gale warning allows mariners to take precautionary actions to ensure their safety at sea or to seek safe anchorage and ride out the storm on land.
According to Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Iloilo commander Lieutenant Ramil Palabrica, gale warning was raised over the south coasts of Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
The gale was triggered by typhoon “Paolo” although the weather disturbance was in faraway east of Basco, Batanes.
According to Palabrica, fast crafts below 200 gross tonnage were not allowed to leave port. Only two big fast crafts of Weesam Express were permitted to set out to sea.
Regular boat trips would resume once Pagasa lifted the gale warning, said Palabrica.
Some 100 people bound for Palawan via M/V Milagrosa were stranded at the port in Lapuz district on Thursday night.
Palabrica said the vessel was not allowed to leave port due to a low pressure area in Palawan.
Meanwhile, trips of motorboats bound for Guimaras from Iloilo City were not suspended. However, they were only allowed to carry 75 percent of their usual passenger volume.
“These motorboats were advised to comply with safety requirements such as providing life jackets to all passengers and checking their engines before leaving port,” said Palabrica.
Trips of roll on, roll off vessels were not suspended.
“Paolo” is expected to leave the Philippine Area of Responsibility by Sunday, Oct. 22, morning, according to Pagasa./PN
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