Evacuations in Philippines as typhoon affects Sea Games

CLARK (Philippines): The Philippines has begun evacuating thousands of people as a powerful typhoon rumbling in from the Pacific forced Southeast Asian Games organisers to cancel or reschedule some events.

Forecasters expect Typhoon Kammuri to make landfall this evening or tomorrow morning, packing gusts of 170kph and maximum sustained winds of 140kph.

The storm entered Philippine territory on Saturday evening, shortly before President Rodrigo Duterte and boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao launched the Games with a colourful opening ceremony.

This year’s Games in Clark, Manila and Subic, which run through to Dec 11, are particularly complex with a record 56 sports across dozens of venues that are in some cases hours apart by car.

Outdoor events in Subic — on the west coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon in the country’s north — were the first to be affected by Kammuri.

“The windsurfing has been cancelled until we have a more accurate picture of the weather,” said Ramon Agregado, the organising committee’s head of the Subic cluster of venues.

The women’s triathlon event was brought forward yesterday, Agregado said, “so we could take advantage of the good weather”.

Duathlon events scheduled for tomorrow will now take place today.

Some local government units in central Bicol region urged people to begin leaving their homes on Saturday night.

By yesterday, more than 3,000 people were in evacuation centres, mostly in schools and gymnasiums in Camarines Norte, the disaster management office of the province said.