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Super Typhoon Goni killed four people in the Philippines after fierce winds caused power outages and damage to infrastructure. About 350,000 people were evacuated from its projected route, including in the capital Manila, where the main international airport was ordered closed.
Goni made landfall at two locations in the Bicol region, where four deaths were reported, provincial governor Al Francis Bichara said, including one struck by a tree and a five-year-old boy washed away by a river overflow.
Video images from news channels and social media showed overflowing rivers and some levees destroyed, submerging villages in Bicol.
Bichara also received reports of volcanic mud flows, as well as power outages and communication services.
In Quezón, Governor Danilo Suárez said power was cut off in 10 towns when Goni felled trees.
Between 19 million and 31 million people could be affected by the typhoon, including those in danger zones and in the Manila metropolitan area, the disaster management agency said.
“There are so many people who are really in vulnerable areas,” said Ricardo Jalad, who heads the government’s disaster response agency. “We expect significant damage.”
The storm hit in the early hours of the morning with sustained winds of 215 km / h (133 mph) and gusts of 290 km / h (180 mph). It 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 people.
“In the next 12 hours, catastrophic violent winds and heavy to torrential rains associated with the eye wall region and the typhoon’s internal rain bands will be experienced,” 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 of more than 5 meters (16 feet), and fierce winds that can wash over poor homes.
One of the most powerful typhoons in the world this year, Goni has evoked memories of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, which left more than 7,300 dead and missing, wiped out entire towns, dragged ships inland and displaced more than five million in the center. From philippines. .
Some 347,000 people were transferred preventively to emergency shelters, mostly 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 the typhoon will put further pressure on government resources, which have been depleted by months of coronavirus outbreaks, prompting the government to establish isolation and treatment centers when hospitals were overwhelmed and provide aid to more than 20 million people. poor Filipinos.
The Philippines has reported more than 380,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the second highest in Southeast Asia, with 7,221 deaths.
Displaced villagers may have to stay longer in evacuation centers even after Goni’s passage, as another storm is brewing in the Pacific that could hit the Philippines in a few days, Jalad said.
The Philippines is affected by about 20 typhoons and storms a year. It is also found in the so-called “Ring of Fire” of the Pacific, a seismically active region around the Pacific where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common, making the impoverished nation of more than 100 million people one of the most prone to to disasters of the world.
