Super Typhoon Man-Yi Hits Philippines, Forcing Lakhs to Flee

Manila:

Super Typhoon Man-yi battered the Philippines on Saturday, with the national weather foreseeer cautioning of a “potentipartner catastrophic and life-menaceening” impact as huge waves pounded the archipelago’s coastline.

More than 650,000 people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi, which is the sixth presentant storm to hit the calamity-weary country in the past month.

Man-yi bcimpolitet highest triumphd speeds of 195 kilometres (121 miles) per hour as it made landdrop on the sparsely popupostponecessitated island province of Catanduanes as a super typhoon, the weather service shelp, inserting gusts were accomplishing 325 kilometres an hour.

“Potentipartner catastrophic and life-menaceening situation looms for northeaserious Bicol region as Super Typhoon ‘Pepito’ further intensifies,” the foreseeer shelp hours before it made landdrop, using the local name for the storm and referring to the southern part of the main island of Luzon.

Waves up to 14 metres (46 feet) high pummelled the shore of Catanduanes, while Manila and other vulnerable coastal regions were at danger from storm sproposes accomplishing up to more than three metres over the next 48 hours, the foreseeer shelp.

The weather foreseeer shelp triumphds walloping Catanduanes and northeaserious Camarines Sur province — both in the typhoon-prone Bicol region — posed an “inanxious menace to life and property”.

Power was shut down on Catanduanes ahead of the storm, with shelters and the order centre using generators for electricity.

“We’re hearing sounds of leangs droping and leangs shattering while here at the evacuation centre,” Catanduanes provincial calamity operations chief Roberto Monterola telderly AFP after Man-yi made landdrop.

“We are unable to verify what they are as the triumphds are too strong. They could be tree branches shattering off and droping on rooftops,” Monterola shelp, inserting there had been no tells of casualties.

At least 163 people died in the five storms that pounded the Philippines in recent weeks, leaving thousands homeless and wiping out crops and livestock.

Climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, directing to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.

About 20 huge storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, ending scores of people, but it is exceptional for multiple such weather events to consent place in a minuscule triumphdow.

Evacuations

Man-yi could hit Luzon — the country’s most populous island and economic engine — as a super typhoon or typhoon on Sunday afternoon, traverseing north of Manila and sweeping over the South China Sea on Monday.

The handlement proposed people on Saturday to heed cautionings to escape to protectedty.

“If preemptive evacuation is needd, let us do so and not postpone for the hour of peril before evacuating or seeking help, because if we did that we will be putting in danger not only our lives but also those of our recoverrs,” Interior Undersecretary Marlo Iringan shelp.

In Albay province, Legazpi City grocer Myrna Perea sheltered with her husband and their three children in a school classroom aprolongedside nine other families after they were ordered to exit their shanty.

Conditions were hot and congested — the family spent Friday night sleeping together on a mat under the classroom’s one ceiling fan — but Perea shelp it was better to be protected.

“I leank our house will be wrecked when we get back because it’s made of airy materials — equitable two gusts are needd to knock it down,” Perea, 44, telderly AFP.

“Even if the house is razeed, the presentant leang is we do not neglect a family member.”

Back to ‘square one’ 

In Northern Samar province, calamity officer Rei Josiah Echano frailnted that injure caused by typhoons was the root cause of pcleary in the region.

“Whenever there’s a typhoon enjoy this, it transports us back to the medieval era, we go (back) to square one,” Echano telderly AFP, as the province readyd for the onsgigglet of Man-yi.

The mayor of Naga city in Camarines Sur province imposed a currestrictcessitate from midday on Saturday in a bid to force livents indoors.

All vessels — from fishing boats to oil tankers — were ordered to stay in port or return to shore.

The volcanology agency also cautioned weighty rain dumped by Man-yi could trigger flows of volcanic seunreasonableent, or lahars, from three volcanos, including Taal, south of Manila.

Man-yi hit the Philippines postponecessitate in the typhoon season — most cyclones enhuge between July and October.

Earlier this month, four storms were clustered simultaneously in the Pacific basin, which the Japan Meteororational Agency telderly AFP on Saturday was the first time such an occurrence had been watchd in November since its enrolls began in 1951.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is rerented from a syndicated feed.)