THE real typhoon season is upon us with typhoon Sarika (Karen in the Philippines) making landfall on Sunday in Baler, Aurora around 2:30 a.m. packing wind gusts of 198 kph and was reported to have moved at 22 kph to Alfonso Castarieda, Nueva Vizcaya maximum sustained winds of up to 150 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 210 kph. It is expected to expend all its powers while on land, and then exit as a category 1 typhoon last night.
There are still no damage reports, so far. We can assume that communication and power lines may be down and it will take a few more hours before we know the extent of the damage.
While we still do not have a clear idea how damaging Sarika is, there is also typhoon to watch out for: Haima, which is moving West Northwest toward the northern parts of the Philippines, a bit higher than the path Sarika has taken. As of Sunday, however, as it howled abov the Pacific Ocean, it was already packing winds of upto 259 kph and is forecast to be a Category 5 typhoon by Wednesday morning. There are still no forecast beyond that, thus we can only pray that it will slow down, lose strength as it approaches land.
In the meantime, let's brace for the worst.
We can count ourselves lucky that we are not on the typhoons' paths. But that does not mean we should celebrate.
Let's all be ready to help as we have always done.
But in the meantime, let's wait for updates and not stir panic through misinformation. It is especially in times like this when we should be circumspect in what we are sharing on social media and what we are messaging to our friends.
We've been through these before, let us just come together as one united people helping those who need help.