Tropical storm (Chedeng (international name: Maysak) weakened before hitting the Philippines’ northeastern coast Sunday, driving away thousands of Lenten holiday vacationers and tourists but causing no casualties.
Alexander Pama, who heads the country’s disaster-response agency, praised the public cooperation after vacationers heeded warnings and moved away from beach resorts. Chedeng brought sporadic rains and whipped up waves but no deaths have been reported so far.
Chedeng, first forecast as a super typhoon, killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Micronesia before blowing toward the Philippines, where officials mobilized to prevent a potential disaster had the storm retained its lethal power. The storm was downgraded Sunday to a tropical depression.
Many of the Philippine TV and radio networks did not shut down as they traditionally do for the religious holiday in the largely Roman Catholic nation to report on Maysak.
Pama said it was better for authorities to receive criticism from vacationers for a turbulence that did not happen than to risk casualties.
The Philippines, which is lashed by about 20 storms each year, remains traumatized by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), which killed more than 7,300 people and left a path of destruction in the country’s central region in November 2013.
Manila Bulettin
