Typhoon stops Games in Philippines

– The Philippines has begun evacuating thousands of people, local officials said yesterday, 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 tonight or tomorrow morning, packing gusts of 170km per hour and maximum sustained winds of 140kph.

The storm entered Philippine territory Saturday evening, shortly before President Rodrigo Duterte and boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao opened the Games.

This year’s Games in Clark, Manila and Subic, which run through to December 11, are already 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.

By yesterday afternoon, more than 3 000 people were in evacuation centres, mostly in Camarines Norte, the disaster management office of the province said. Most of them live in coastal areas where flash floods and landslides are possible due to the typhoon.