Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Philippines as “one of the world’s strongest storms” of the year made landfall in mid-eastern parts of the island nation.
The Philippine’s weather bureau, PAGASA, said Typhoon Rai made its first landfall in Surigao del Norte’s Siargao Island at 05:30 GMT.
It warned of “very destructive typhoon-force winds” in parts of the country and said it expected to see storm surges in coastal areas, as well as flooding and landslides in mountainous areas along the typhoon’s path.
PAGASA said wind speed has accelerated to 195 kilometres (121 miles per hour) near the centre with gusts of up to 240km/h (149 mph).
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) of the US Navy has declared Rai as a super typhoon.
The typhoon is the 15th to hit the country this year.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called the typhoon, which is locally known as Typhoon Odette, “one of the world’s strongest storms of 2021” and said it is “threatening millions of people with destructive winds and flash floods”.
“Filipinos are tough but this Super Typhoon is a bitter blow for millions of people who are still recovering from devastating storms, floods and COVID-19 in the past year,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross.
According to the national disaster mitigation agency, NDRRMC, eight regions in the country have been placed on the highest level in emergency preparedness and response protocol.
The eight regions located in the central and southern group of islands in the Visayas and Mindanao areas have a combined population of more than 30 million.
Several of those areas have been advised to conduct a preemptive evacuation. Suspension of work and online classes have been ordered in some areas including the central province of Cebu, which has a population of eight million.
A COVID-19 vaccination drive has also been suspended in some parts of the country due to the typhoon. The evacuations could further complicate the country’s coronavirus response as thousands of displaced residents pack emergency shelters, where it is difficult to maintain social distancing guidelines.
In the province of Eastern Samar in the Visayas, Governor Ben Evardone has been quoted as telling the DZMM radio station that nearly 30,000 residents have been evacuated as of Thursday morning. Eastern Samar and Leyte provinces were among those hardest hit by the 2013 super typhoon Haiyan, which left thousands dead.
In other parts of the eastern Visayas, more than 17,000 people were also evacuated, according to news reports.
In the province of Surigao del Norte in Mindanao, the provincial disaster mitigation agency said that 51,000 residents have been evacuated so far.
In Dinagat, Governor Arlene Bag-ao was quoted by news reports as saying that almost 2,000 families have sought shelter at evacuation centres.
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