Storm lashes Philippines, weakens

1 killed, thousands stuck in shelters on Christmas Day

MANILA, Philippines — A typhoon in the Philippines weakened slightly today as it roared toward a congested region near the country’s capital, officials said.

They said Typhoon NockTen killed at least one person and cut power to five provinces as well as displaced thousands of villagers and travelers in Asia’s Catholic bastion.

A farmer died after being pinned by a fallen tree in Quezon province southeast of Manila a few hours after the typhoon slammed into the country Sunday night. It then blew westward across mountainous and island provinces, damaging homes, uprooting trees and knocking down communications, according to officials and local news reports.

Although it weakened, the typhoon still had sustained winds of up to 90 mph, government forecasters said, and was moving toward the heavily populated provinces of Batangas and Cavite, south of Manila this morning.

Tens of thousands of villagers, forced to spend Christmas in crowded and powerless emergency shelters, started to return home to deal with the damage after the typhoon struck Christmas Day, the country’s biggest holiday.

“They have left the evacuation centers and we’re seeing the sun again,” said Ann Ongjoco, mayor of Guinobatan town in Albay province, one of five provinces that lost electricity.

But she said her town, where more than 17,600 villagers fled to shelters in schools, will not be able to resume the holiday celebrations because of the post-typhoon mess. “Many houses made of light materials were destroyed,” she said by telephone.

Nearly 12,000 passengers were stranded after sea travel was suspended, and more than a dozen domestic flights to eastern provinces were canceled as the typhoon neared.

In the past 65 years, seven typhoons have struck the Philippines on Christmas Day, according to the government’s weather agency.

Gov. Miguel Villafuerte of Camarines Sur province offered roast pig, a popular delicacy called “lechon,” in evacuation centers to entice villagers to move to emergency shelters.

“I know it’s Christmas … but this is a legit typhoon,” Villafuerte tweeted on Christmas Eve. “Please evacuate, we’ll be having lechon at evacuation centers.”

More than 48,000 people moved to evacuation centers in the province, authorities said.

In nearby Albay province, more than 76,000 people spent the night in evacuation centers or moved in with relatives and friends living away from coastal communities.

Camarines Sur officials had targeted about 50,000 families — about 250,000 people — for evacuation by Saturday night, but the number of those who responded was initially far below expectations.

In Catanduanes province, Vice Gov. Shirley Abundo said she ordered a forced evacuation of villagers, adding that some “are really hard-headed; they don’t want to leave their houses because it’s Christmas.”

“We need to do this by force, we need to evacuate them now,” she told ABSCBN television.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, which helps oversee government response during disasters, said only about 4,200 people were reported to have moved to six evacuation centers by Sunday morning in the Bicol region, which includes Camarines Sur.

“It’s difficult to force celebrations when our lives will be put at risk. Please prioritize safety and take heed of warnings by local government units,” welfare official Felino Castro said by phone.

Food, water and other emergency supplies had been pre-positioned in areas expected to be lashed by the typhoon, Castro said. His department was to activate an emergency group comprising the military, police, coast guard and other agencies Sunday to oversee disaster-response plans.

In Guinobatan, the villagers moved to evacuation shelters without hesitation because of fears of a repeat of a typhoon several years ago that unleashed smoldering mudflows from nearby Guinobatan, leaving hundreds dead, Ongjoco said by phone.

Josefina Nao, who evacuated to a Guinobatan school with her six children, grandchildren and siblings, said Sunday was one of her bleakest Christmas holidays, but that poor people like her did not have much choice. She said it was tough to replicate Christmas away from home, adding that town officials tried to cheer evacuees by distributing holiday food such as spaghetti.

“We live in a flood-prone community near a river where many had been swept to their deaths by floodwaters during typhoons,” the 60-year-old Nao said by phone from a classroom-turned-storm shelter that was void of any Christmas lights or decorations. “I wish it was a merrier Christmas, but this is our best option because we’ll all be safe together.”

About 20 typhoons and storms, mostly from the Pacific, lash the Philippines each year, making the country of more than 100 million people one of the most disaster-prone in the world.

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing and displacing more than 5 million after leveling entire villages despite days of dire warnings by government officials.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of Deutsche Presse-Agentur.