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‘Catastrophic winds’ are forecast when the storm hits.
Typhoon Goni, expected to be the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year, made landfall early Sunday and weather authorities forecast “catastrophic wind damage” as it swept through the country.
The warning came as emergency response teams backed by the Philippine police and military rushed to prepare. Winds were expected to be particularly strong in Catanduanes province and other areas, Pagasa, the national meteorological agency, said in a tweet it posted Sunday morning.
The center of Goni’s eye made landfall as a super typhoon at 4:50 am in Catanduanes, an island province, Pagasa said. His path was expected to take him through Luzon, the country’s most populous island and the country’s capital region.
‘Super’ or not, the typhoon is expected to cause large-scale destruction.
Typhoon Goni had sustained winds of 135 miles per hour at its center and gusts of 165 miles per hour since early Sunday morning, prompting the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to classify the storm as a super typhoon.
The eye of the storm, which Filipino officials call Typhoon Rolly under its separate naming system, was expected to pass near Metro Manila, the capital region and home to more than 24 million people.
“We are forecasting widespread destruction, even if this doesn’t turn into a super typhoon,” Ricardo Jalad, head of the government’s National Council for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, told state television on Saturday.
Along with violent winds and torrential rains, storm surge was expected along the coast, Philippine Meteorological Agency said.
The Philippines, a typhoon-prone country, prepares for the 18th of the year.
Goni, the 18th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, comes just days after Typhoon Molave hit the country, causing heavy rains and causing significant flooding. Molave killed 22 people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands before moving to Vietnam, where it caused deadly landslides.
Jalad of the disaster management agency said evacuations in areas threatened by Goni began on Friday. Almost a million people in southern Luzon had already been evacuated as of Saturday, the agency reported.
Local officials could order forced evacuations if necessary, Jalad said.
“If they see that their constituents are in danger, they are authorized to carry out forced evacuations with the help of the Philippine National Police and other uniformed services,” Jalad said. There have been “avoidable casualties” during Typhoon Molave, he added, because some people had ignored the warnings.
The Philippines is affected by at least 20 tropical storms and typhoons each year, some of them deadly. Thousands of people died in November 2013 when Super Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the central Philippines.
The relief and rescue services are preparing.
The Philippine Red Cross stationed rescue vehicles and emergency response teams throughout Luzon.
“We are determined to do everything we can to help these communities prepare for the coming storm,” said Richard Gordon, president of the Red Cross.
He said disasters complicated the country’s response to Covid-19, which has infected more than 370,000 people and killed 7,185. Evacuation centers can make social distancing more challenging than usual.
The Philippine military said it had also deployed emergency response units in areas expected to be hit by the typhoon.
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