“Lando” has been officially stricken off the country’s list of tropical cyclone names.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration has selected another name to replace it.
PAGASA Assistant Weather Services Chief Robert Sawi said Lando, which caused massive damage to property, infrastructure, and agriculture in Luzon last week, has been replaced by “Liwayway.”
PAGASA said the decommissioning of “extraordinarily destructive storms” has been practiced since February 1979.
A tropical cyclone name is replaced once the cost of damage to agriculture and infrastructure has reached more than R1 billion and or claimed at least 300 lives.
As of Wednesday, the amount of damage due to typhoon Lando has reached P9.8 billion and left 47 people dead.
Only Lando has so far been retired from PAGASA’s tropical cyclone list this year.
The sets of tropical cyclone names were used every four years, from 2013-2016, 2017-2020, 2021-2024, and so on.
In 1999, the “Name-a-Bagyo Contest” was conducted by PAGASA to replace the old all-female list of local typhoon names.
They chose from around 18,000 entries, where 140 names were selected and assigned to the cyclones that would enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility. The most popular and acceptable names were compiled from the entries submitted by the public.
After some revisions, the final list, consisting of four sets of 25 names, with 10 auxillary or “reserved” names, became the PAGASA’s official local naming for tropical cyclones entering the country’s area of responsibility.
In the event that the number of tropical cyclones within the year exceeds 25, the auxiliary list is used.
(Ellalyn B. de Vera)