LEGAZPI – Super Typhoon Goni slammed into the Philippines today, with authorities warning of “catastrophic” conditions in the region expected to receive the hardest hit, where nearly a million people have been evacuated.
The strongest typhoon of the year so far made landfall on Catanduanes Island at 4.50am (2050 GMT yesterday) with maximum sustained winds of 225kph, said the state weather forecaster.
Over the next 12 hours, “catastrophic violent winds and intense to torrential rainfall” will be experienced in the Bicol region, which covers the southern end of the main island of Luzon and Catanduanes, it said.
“This a particularly dangerous situation for these areas.”
Goni – which intensified into a “super” typhoon as it neared the Philippines – comes a week after Typhoon Molave hit the same region of the natural disaster-prone archipelago.
That storm killed 22 people and flooded low-lying villages and farmland before crossing the South China Sea to Vietnam.
“It looks like we will have really strong winds, increasing the chances of widespread flooding and landslides,” Mark Timbal, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told local broadcaster ABS-CBN yesterday.
“Storm surges are imminent on our east coast. We are monitoring Mayon and Taal volcanoes for possible volcanic mud flows.”
Civil defence chief Ricardo Jalad said “almost a million” people have left their homes in Bicol.
Authorities spent yesterday marshalling rescue vehicles, emergency response teams and relief goods before the storm’s arrival.
There is a “high risk” of potentially life-threatening storm surges of more than 3m high along parts of the coast, which could inundate low-lying areas, they warned.
A storm surge of up to 3m is also forecast for coastal areas of the capital, Manila. – AFP, November 1, 2020
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