Super Typhoon Man-yi, heading towards the Philippines, is intensifying and could impact ” potentially catastrophic » on the archipelago according to the meteorological services. Millions of people are threatened. The Philippines faces its sixth typhoon of the season.
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More than 650,000 people have fled their homes as this “super typhoon” approaches with winds reaching 240 km/h and which will make landfall late this Saturday, November 16 or early Sunday morning. It will be the sixth major storm to hit the Philippines in just one month.
The previous ones killed at least 163 peopleleft thousands homeless, destroyed crops and killed livestock. “ A potentially catastrophic and deadly situation looms in the northeastern Bicol region as super typhoon “Pepito” continues to intensify the weather agency said in its latest update, using the storm’s local name and referring to the southern part of the main island of Luzon.
On November 16, the government called on the population to heed the warnings and take shelter. “ If a preventive evacuation is necessary, let’s do it and not wait for the hour of danger to evacuate or seek help, (…) we will endanger not only our lives, but also those of our rescuers said Marlo Iringan, Undersecretary of the Interior.
Curfews and forced evacuations
In the island province of Catanduanes in the typhoon-plagued Bicol region, evacuation centers are filling up and the weather agency is warning of severe flooding and landslides.
More than 400 people crowded into the provincial government building in the capital Virac, with new arrivals sent to a gymnasium, the provincial disaster official told AFP. He announced that he had deployed soldiers to force around 100 households in two coastal villages near Virac to head inland, for fear that the storm would submerge their homes.
“Regardless of the exact point of arrival, heavy precipitation, strong winds and storm surges may occur in locations outside the expected arrival area,” the weather agency said. The mayor of the city of Naga, in the province of Camarines Sur, imposed a curfew from noon this Saturday, November 16, in order to force residents to stay at home.
More intense and more devastating typhoons
In Northern Samar province, the disaster official says typhoon damage is causing poverty in the region. “ Every time we have a typhoon like this, it takes us back to the medieval era “. All ships, from fishing boats to tankers, have been ordered to stay in port or return to dock. Nearly 4,000 people were stranded after the coast guard closed 55 ports.
For their part, scientists affirm that the climate change increases the intensity of storms, causing more heavy rain, flash flooding and more violent gusts. Every year, around 20 major storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters, killing dozens of people, but it is rare for several such weather events to occur in a short period of time.
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