THOUSANDS IN PHILIPPINES SEEK REFUGE FROM SUPER TYPHOON
▶ Schools and businesses close in northern province of Batanes as 200kph winds are forecast
Residents of the Philippines yesterday prepared for the arrival of a typhoon with winds of up to 200kph.
About 5,000 villagers were evacuated from coastal areas in the northern province of Batanes and schools and businesses closed as Typhoon Mawar approached.
Nearby Cagayan province was also on alert and flights were suspended in the area.
Mawar is an example of a rare phenomenon known as a “super typhoon”. Those are Category 5 storms, the strongest in the Pacific region.
They can record wind speeds of up to 250kph.
The Philippines Office of Civil Defence said yesterday it was tracking the typhoon.
Mawar caused destruction in the US Pacific territory of Guam last week, overturning cars, causing power cuts and uprooting trees.
It was the strongest typhoon to hit Guam in two decades but weakened as it made landfall.
Meteorologists have said the typhoon intensified after it passed over the island. Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the EU’s space programme, posted an image of the eye of the storm as it neared the Philippines.
Authorities in the country said the storm could cause flash floods and landslides, even if it missed Batanes and continued towards Taiwan.
Residents of the Philippines have been warned there is no room for complacency.
“Even if the sun is up, the weather is so unpredictable nowadays and could change any time, so we should always stay on the side of safety,” said Raffy Alejandro, assistant secretary of the Office of Civil Defence. “We’re talking of potential threats to lives.”
Batanes vice governor Ignacio Villa said typhoons, earthquakes and natural calamities “have been a part of our lives”.
“We cannot afford not to prepare because that would potentially mean the loss of lives and major damage,” he said.
Soldiers, police, firefighters and volunteer groups were yesterday standing by to launch search and rescue operations in northern provinces.
More than a million food aid parcels have been prepared, officials said.
The number of displaced people was expected to rise, given precautionary evacuations under way in flood-prone regions, Mr Alejandro said.
Mr Villa said the local government lent ropes to villagers to strengthen their houses as the typhoon approached.
Each year about 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines, which lies on seismic faults where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.