Philippines evacuates 1 mln people as super typhoon nears

MANILA

Super Typhoon Fung-wong, the biggest storm to threaten the Philippines this year, started battering the country’s northeastern coast ahead of landfall yesterday, knocking down power, forcing the evacuation of more than a million people and prompting the defense chief to warn many others to evacuate to safety from high-risk villages before it’s too late.

Fung-wong, which could cover two-thirds of the Southeast Asian archipelago with its 1,600-kilometer-wide rain and wind band, approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi , which left at least 224 people dead in central island provinces Nov. 4 before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared a state of emergency due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected calamity from Fung-wong, which is called Uwan in the Philippines.

Fung-wong, with winds of up to 185 kph and gusts of up to 230 kph, was spotted by government forecasters before noon yesterday over coastal waters near the town of Pandan in eastern Catanduanes province, where torrential rains and fog have obscured visibility. The typhoon is expected to track northwestward and make landfall on the coast of Aurora or Isabela province today, state forecasters said.

“The rain and wind were so strong there was nearly zero visibility,” Roberto Monterola, a disaster-mitigation officer for Catanduanes, told The Associated Press by telephone, adding there have been no reports of casualties so far in the island province of more than 200,000 people.

Over a million people were evacuated from high-risk villages in northeastern provinces.

More than 30 million people could be exposed to hazards posed by Fung-wong, the Office of Civil Defense said.