POWERFUL TYPHOON
slams into Philippines.
TUGUEGARAO, Philippines — Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the country’s northeastern coast early today, with witnesses saying the storm’s wind and rain ripped off tin roofs and knocked out power at the start of the onslaught.
The typhoon made landfall before dawn in the coastal town of Baggao in Cagayan province on the northern tip of Luzon island, an agricultural region of flood-prone rice plains and mountain provinces often hit by landslides.
More than 5 million people were at risk from the storm, which the Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center downgraded from a super typhoon but still punching powerful winds and gusts equivalent to a category 4 Atlantic hurricane.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties in the region, where an evacuation from high-risk areas was carried out over two days.
With a huge raincloud band 560 miles wide, combined with seasonal monsoon rains, the typhoon was expected to bring intense rain that could set off landslides and flash floods. Storm warnings have been raised in almost all the provinces across Luzon, including the capital, Manila, restricting sea and air travel.
Before it hit the island, Mangkhut was tracked late Friday with sustained winds of 127 miles per hour and gusts of up to 158 mph, forecasters said.
“It can lift cars. You can’t stand, you can’t even crawl against that wind,” government forecaster Rene Paciente told reporters late Friday in Manila.
In Cagayan’s capital city of Tuguegarao, residents braced for the typhoon’s fury by reinforcing homes and buildings and stocking up on food.
“It was busy earlier in the hardware store and people were buying wood, nails, tin wire, plywood and umbrellas,” said Benjamin Banez, who owns a three-story hotel where workers were busy hammering up wooden boards to protect glass panels.
A super typhoon wrought heavy damage on Banez’s hotel and the rest of Cagayan in 2016.
More than 15,300 people had been evacuated in northern provinces by Friday afternoon, the Office of Civil Defense said.
Concerns over storm surges that could be whipped inland by the typhoon’s winds prompted wardens to move 143 detainees from a jail in Cagayan’s Aparri town to nearby towns, officials said.
The typhoon hit at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in Cagayan, a major agricultural producer, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said. The threat to agriculture comes as the Philippines tries to cope with rice shortages.
After the Philippines, the Hong Kong Observatory predicts Mangkhut will plow into the Chinese mainland early Monday south of Hong Kong and north of the island province of Hainan. It will still pack sustained winds of 109 mph, it said.
The observatory warned of rough seas and frequent heavy squalls, urging residents of the densely populated financial hub to “take suitable precautions and pay close attention to the latest information” on the storm.
The gambling enclave of Macau, near Hong Kong, suffered catastrophic flooding during Typhoon Hato last August that left 10 dead and led to accusations of corruption and incompetence at its meteorological office.
On the Chinese mainland, the three southern provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan are coordinating preparations, including suspending transport and moving people to shelter inland, the national meteorological agency reported.
Guangdong, China’s manufacturing hub, has set up 3,777 shelters, while more than 100,000 residents and tourists have been moved to safety or sent home.
The province has recalled more than 36,000 fishing boats to port, while train services between the cities of Zhanjiang and Maoming have been suspended and all ferry services between Guangdong and Hainan have been put on hold. Fujian province to the north of Guangdong is also closing beaches and tourist sites, the agency reported.
Philippine forecasters said the shifting typhoon could possibly blow toward Vietnam after it exits late today or early Sunday.