EVEN as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council removed Negros Occidental from the critical alert status, an official from the Provincial Disaster Management Program Division (PDMPD) urged Negrenses to stay alert.
Dr. Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, head of the PDMPD, said the province is not on the path of Typhoon Rolly, which is considered by weather experts as a super typhoon.
He said Negros Occidental, however, has remained under "blue alert" status.
Super typhoon Rolly will bring strong rains and winds to the province, the official said.
Caelian called on local government units to conduct preemptive evacuation if there are heavy rains in their respective areas.
"We also need to pray to spare Negros Occidental," he said.
The PDMPD earlier recommended to Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson to put the whole province under "Blue Alert" until the end of the year to better prepare for the rainy season.
Caelian said that based on the data released by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the months of November and December are usually the times when some of the storms that cross the Visayas make landfall over Negros.
Caelian said it would be best to have all LGUs to be alert and prepared.
"It would not be wise that an alert status only be declared when the storm has already entered," he said.