Super typhoon Goni: ‘the most powerful storm in history’ hits the Philippines

A super typhoon hit the eastern Philippines with fierce winds early Sunday morning and about a million people were evacuated on its projected route, including in the capital, where the main international airport was ordered closed.

Typhoon Goni hit the island province of Catanduanes at dawn with sustained winds of 225 km / h and gusts of 280 km / h, equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.

“There are a lot of people who are really in vulnerable areas,” said Ricardo Jalad, who heads the government’s disaster response agency. “We expect significant damage.”

One US weather commentator called the storm potentially “the most powerful tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in world history.”

The typhoon was blowing west into densely populated regions, including Manila, and rain-soaked provinces still reeling from a typhoon that struck a week ago and killed at least 22.

“In the next 12 hours, catastrophic violent winds and heavy to torrential rains will be experienced associated with the eye wall region and the internal rain bands of the typhoon,” the Philippine meteorological agency said in an urgent advisory.

He said Catanduanes and four other provinces will be the first to be affected, including Albay, where tens of thousands of villagers have been moved to safety, especially near the active Mayon volcano, where mudflows have caused deaths during past storms.

Residents have been warned about potential landslides, massive flooding, storm surges greater than 5 m and fierce winds that can wash away the shacks.

Characterized by an American weather commentator as the most powerful typhoons in the world this year, Goni conjures up memories of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, which left more than 7,300 dead and missing, devastated entire towns, swept ships inland and displaced more people. 5 million in the central Philippines.

Jalad said that nearly a million people have been preventively transferred to emergency shelters, mainly schools and government buildings. He warned of storm surges that could flood coastal villages, including Manila Bay.

Forecasters said the typhoon’s eye could hit or skim the Manila metropolitan area, the capital’s densely populated region of more than 13 million, from Sunday night until early Monday morning and called on the public to prepare for it. worst.

The typhoon may weaken considerably after hitting the Sierra Madre mountain range and then crossing the main northern island of Luzon into the South China Sea.

Manila’s main airport was ordered to close for 24 hours from Sunday to Monday, and airlines canceled dozens of domestic and international flights.

The army and national police, along with the coast guard and firefighters, have been put on high alert.

About 1,000 Covid-19 patients were transferred to hospitals and hotels from treatment and quarantine centers in tents in the capital and the northern province of Bulacan, Jalad said. More emergency shelters would be opened than usual to avoid congestion that can quickly lead to infections.

Preparations for a war-like typhoon will put further strain on government resources, which have been depleted with months of coronavirus outbreaks that led the government to establish isolation and treatment centers when hospitals were overwhelmed and provide aid to more than 20 millions of poor Filipinos.

The Philippines has reported more than 380,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the second highest in Southeast Asia, with 7221 deaths.

Displaced villagers may have to stay longer in evacuation centers even after Goni leaves on Tuesday due to another storm looming in the Pacific that could hit the Philippines in a few days, Jalad said.

The Philippines experiences about 20 typhoons and storms a year. It is also located in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a seismically active region around the Pacific where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common and makes the impoverished Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 million people one of the the world’s most disaster-prone. .