The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on Wednesday raised Storm Signal No. 3 over the provinces of Cagayan, including Calayan and the Babuyan Islands, and Batanes, saying that Typhoon “Ramil” will start to bring heavy rains and gusty winds between noon and afternoon this Thursday.

The weather bureau placed “Ramil” at about 455 kilometers east northeast of Aparri in Cagayan, maintaining maximum sustained winds of 175 kph near the center and gustiness of 210 kph while moving west southwest at 15 kph as of 5 p.m. Thursday. PAGASA deputy director Nathaniel Cruz said that Storm Signal No. 2 was hoisted over Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Apayao, Abra, Kalinga, Isabela, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Benguet, and La Union, where people will start to feel torrential rains and winds with strength of 60 to 100 kph starting Thursday afternoon.

Storm Signal No. 1 was declared over Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Aurora, and the northern part of Quezon including Polillo Islands as well as Central Luzon provinces like Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, and Zambales, where stormy weather and winds with strength of 30 to 60 kph will start to take effect on Thursday.

Cruz said that residents in the areas where storm signals have been raised should evacuate to safer places with typhoon predicted to bring more rains than Tropical Storm “Ondoy” or about 20 to 25 mm rainfall per hour.

“These are considered to be the initial effects of the typhoon,” Cruz said.

PAGASA administrator Prisco Nilo said that the slow pace of “Ramil” will expose Northern Luzon provinces to heavy rainfall that can last up to 12 hours and trigger flashfloods and landslides.

Cruz said that “Ramil” will not make landfall until late Thursday evening or early Friday morning.

Citing various weather models, Nilo said the ridge of the High Pressure Area (HPA) near the vicinity of Hong Kong has started moving towards the north, making way for “Ramil” to continue moving west southwestward and directly hit North Luzon.

He said that one weather model showed possibility that the HPA near Hong Kong would move southward on Thursday, which could block the track of Typhoon “Ramil” and spare North Luzon from being hit.

Nilo said that minimal stormy weather conditions will be felt over provinces in the rest of Central and Southern Luzon including Metro Manila, while Visayas and Mindanao will have scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms due to the prevailing Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) near Palawan.

As this developed, the National Power Corporation (Napocor) announced that it has ordered the spilling of water from the San Roque Dam after water reached 278 meters as provided for under the interim protocol on water release from dams.

In an update, Napocor said that as of 7 a.m. on Wednesday, water at the San Roque Dam had reached 278 meters and the dam had started spilling water from one gate which was opened by a total of 0.5 meter.

Napocor measured the water inflow at 352 cubic meters per second and the outflow also at 352 cms at the San Roque Dam.

At the Angat Dam, water was recorded at an elevation of 210.25 meters and the gates remained closed.

Based on data from the PAGASA website, the San Roque Dam water elevation has eased to 277.80 meters by 10 a.m. Wednesday with one gate spilling 354 cms.

The Ambuklao Dam has one gate open at one meter and spilling 23 cms with water elevation at 741.90 meters compared to its normal spilling level of 752 meters.

The Pantabangan Dam is spilling 200 cms from a gate that is open by four meters as water has reached 218.46 meters from its normal spilling level of 221 meters.

The Magat Dam has released water at the rate of 606 cms from one gate that is open by a meter as water has reached 190.31 meters from its normal spilling level of 193 meters.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes had announced the implementation of the interim protocol while various agencies were asked to give their input to come up with an amended protocol.

On Wednesday, President Arroyo offered prayers that typhoon “Ramil” would spare the country already struggling to recover from the devastating floods and landslides brought by storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

The President led a prayer seeking the Lord’s deliverance from the typhoon and forgiveness of man’s sins of environmental degradation during a business forum at the Manila Hotel.

The prayer, read by the President towards the end of her speech, was recently published by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in national newspapers.

“As we face typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions and other calamities, we trustingly seek Your help, aware You are the master of creation. We acknowledged that as entire humanity we have not been good stewards of nature.

We have confused Your command to subdue the earth. The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing and now we reap the harvest of abuse and indifference,” the President said.

“We turn to You our loving Father and beg forgiveness for our sins. We humbly beg that we be spared from the dark consequences of calamities. We beseech You to inspire us all to grow into responsible stewards of Your creation and generous neighbors to those who need,” she said. (with reports by Genalyn Kabiling and James Loyola)