People rush to safety ahead of typhoon in the Philippines
manila — A super typhoon roared towards the Philippines on Thursday, prompting thousands to evacuate ahead of its heavy rains and fierce winds that are set to strike at the weekend before moving on to China.
Typhoon Mangkhut, which has already blasted through the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, is speeding across the Pacific with winds that can gust as high as 255km per hour.
Authorities said some 10 million people in the Philippines are in the storm’s path, not including millions more in heavily-populated coastal China.
Thousands began evacuating in seaside areas of the northern tip of the main Philippine island of Luzon, where the storm is expected to make landfall early Saturday. “We are really frightened. They say it (typhoon) is so strong,” said Delaila Pasion, who had fled her home. “We were too scared to remain.”
“During the previous monsoon rains, half of our house was destroyed so I wanted to take my grandchildren to safety,” she said. —
manila — Philippine authorities started to evacuate thousands of people from coastal areas on Thursday as a super typhoon with winds of more than 205 km per hour bore down on the country’s main island.
Typhoon Mangkhut is forecast to make landfall early on Saturday on the northern tip of Luzon island, and will be the strongest of 15 storms to have hit the Philippines this year.
Medical and emergency response teams were on stand by, heavy equipment mobilised and more than 1.7 billion pesos ($31.45 million) of relief goods prepared as Mangkhut, known locally as Ompong, edged towards the storm-prone nation on its way towards southern China and northern Vietnam.
“What’s happening now is preemptive evacuation in certain areas,” said Manuel Mamba, governor of the northeastern province of Cagayan, where schools and offices were closed and police, military and coastguard told to be ready.
“There are no people on the streets as they are preparing for the storm,” he told a radio station.
Mangkhut, the Thai word for the fruit mangosteen, has a diameter of about 900 km, with gusts of up to 255 kph (158.5 mph).
It is drawing comparisons with Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated central areas of the archipelago nation in 2013, killing 6,300 people.
President Rodrigo Duterte and defence, interior and energy chiefs were given a briefing on emergency plans for a storm that could impact 4.3 million people, more than 800,000 of whom live in poverty.
“I worry especially for houses made of light materials,” said Marilou Cayco, governor of Batanes, a chain of seven remote islands 240km off the mainland where she said up to 3,000 families could be “battered”. —
There are no people on the streets as they are preparing for the storm
Manuel Mamba, Cagayan governor