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MANILA – A super typhoon hit the Philippines in the early hours of Sunday (November 1), affecting about 30 million and killing at least seven as it brought hurricane-force winds and dumped heavy rain on the main island of Luzon.
Typhoon Goni, known locally as Rolly, made landfall around 5 a.m. in the province of Catanduanes in Bicol, about 500 kilometers southeast of the capital Manila, with winds of up to 225 kilometers per hour and short gusts of 310 kilometers per hour.
“The areas along the path of the eye of the storm are experiencing a very dangerous situation … catastrophic violent winds and heavy to torrential rains,” said weather forecaster Chris Perez at a news conference.
The typhoon ripped off roofs, overturned walls, uprooted trees, triggered landslides and triggered storm surges that flooded coastal cities in the Bicol region, home to about six million.
People were seen sitting on their rooftops, as the rains fell and floods swept through their village.
Power was cut in areas hit by high winds, including some large cities in the Manila metropolitan area, the densely populated capital region of more than 13 million.
Cavite province, just an hour south of Manila, was in a “state of calamity.”
Equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, Goni is the strongest typhoon to hit anywhere in the world so far this year. It’s hitting the very regions that are still reeling from the fury of another typhoon, Molave, which killed 22 people last week.
It has brought back memories of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, which left more than 7,300 dead and missing.
The governor of the province of Albay, Francis Bichara, reported that at least four people died in the province of Albay. A man was killed when a tree toppled over and fell on him.
Bichara added that several levees burst, causing rapid flooding that killed three, including a five-year-old boy. Landslides were also reported along the slopes of the Mayon volcano, obliterating several houses.
The Civil Defense Office later in the evening said that seven had already died in Albay.
An image posted on social media showed a body stuck in a tree and partially buried in mud in a town in Albay. A 78-year-old man was reported to have died after suffering a stroke, while being evacuated along with thousands of others.
Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the national disaster agency, said the typhoon affected more than 31.9 million people. More than 350,000 were evacuated, he added.
Manila’s airports and rail services were closed.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said thousands of Covid-19 patients and healthcare workers had been transferred from their quarantine facilities to daycare centers, public schools, hotels and motels.
The Philippines has the second highest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia alone, with 383,113 cases and 7,238 deaths.
Forecasters said Goni’s eye could hit or skim the Manila metropolitan area from Sunday night until early Monday morning (November 2).
The typhoon can weaken considerably after hitting the Sierra Madre mountain range and then crossing Luzon into the South China Sea. At noon, the meteorological office lowered Goni’s classification from a super typhoon to a “very strong typhoon”, with maximum winds of up to 215 km / h.
Goni is the 18th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year.
The Philippines is the first major land mass off the Pacific cyclone belt. As such, it receives an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year.
Typhoon season generally begins in June and ends in November. But in recent years, the strongest typhoons have hit the country as the year draws to a close in November and December.
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