The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) lowered Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal Number Five to Number Two over Itbayat, Batanes as Super Typhoon ''Leon"' left extreme northern Luzon to make landfall over southeastern Taiwan on Thursday.

It reached the highest signal when ''Leon'' was 140 kilometers east of Basco, Batanes, with winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 230 kilometers per hour at 11 pm Wednesday.

In its 5 pm bulletin, Pagasa said Signal No.1 was raised over the rest of Batanes, Babuyan Islands, the northern portion of mainland Cagayan (Santa Praxedes, Sanchez-Mira, Claveria, Pamplona, Abulug, Ballesteros, Aparri, Camalaniugan, Buguey, Gonzaga, Santa Teresita, Santa Ana), and the northern portion of Ilocos Norte (Bangui, Burgos, Dumalneg, Adams, Pagudpud).

“Leon” was last spotted 320 kilometers north-northwest of Itbayat.It had maximum winds of 155 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 255 kilometers per hour.

Pagasa forecasted that after crossing Taiwan, “Leon” will urn northeastward over the Taiwan Strait towards the East China Sea and exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility tonight or early Friday morning.

In an interview with dzBB, Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco said the winds and rains in the province have weakened compared to Wednesday night.

“Last night, the wind was very strong, and we couldn’t sleep all night because of it, it was like Typhoon ‘Julian’... This time, the wind was very, very strong, but it only brought a little rain. So, there are no reports of flooding in other municipalities,” Cayco said.

Cayco said there were no reported casualties but she would be going to the municipalities to check their situation.

She added that in Batanes, 186 families, or 606 individuals are staying inside evacuation centers while 304 families, or 832 individuals are outside evacuation centers.

Cayco said they still have relief packs but lack family food packs in the province since they had to distribute them twice after suffering from the onslaught of three typhoons.

“ When it comes to family food packs, the 7,000 that were pre-positioned by the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) in Batanes were used up because they were distributed. The family food packs were distributed twice to all the families here. After typhoon ‘Julian’, we ran out of family food packs but we requested 14,000 of them from the DSWD. Unfortunately, they were unable to deliver it because of typhoons ‘Kristine’ and ‘Leon’,” Cayco said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS