More than 250,000 people flee as Super Typhoon Man-yi approaches the Philippines

A powerful storm heading towards the Philippines strengthened into a super typhoon on Saturday, the state weather forecaster said, warning of “significant to severe wind impacts” and “life-threatening” storm surges.

About 255,000 people have fled their homes ahead of Super Typhoon Man-yi, which is expected to make landfall late Saturday or early Sunday, becoming the sixth major storm to hit the archipelago country in the past month.

With winds of up to 230 kilometers per hour (about 140 miles per hour), Man-yi was on track to hit the sparsely populated island province of Catanduanes as a super typhoon, or “near-peak intensity,” the weather service warned.

While seas as high as 14 meters (46 feet) are expected around Catanduanes, “serious and severe impacts from typhoon-force winds are possible” in the hardest-hit areas and “there is a high risk of life-threatening storm surges” exceeding three metres, the forecaster said.

At least 163 people have died in five storms that have hit the Philippines in recent weeks, also leaving thousands homeless and destroying crops and livestock.

The government on Saturday urged people to heed warnings to flee to safety.

The Undersecretary of Internal Affairs said, “If preventive evacuation is necessary, let’s do it and let’s not wait for the hour of danger before evacuating or calling for help, because if we do this, we will endanger not only our own lives but also the lives of our rescuers.” Marlo Iringan said.

In Albay province, Legazpi City grocer Myrna Perea was sheltered in a school classroom with nine other families, along with her fruit seller husband and three children, after they were ordered to leave the slum.

Conditions were hot and cramped (the family spent Friday night sleeping together on mats under the classroom’s only ceiling fan), but Perea said it was better to be safe.

“I think when we come back our house will be ruined because it is made of light materials; it only takes two gusts of wind to destroy it,” Perea, 44, told AFP.

Ted. “Even if the house is destroyed, the important thing is that we don’t lose a family member.”

Scientists have warned that climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rainfall, flash floods and stronger winds.

About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian country or surrounding waters every year, killing scores of people, but it is rare for such weather events to occur more than once in a small window.

Evacuation centers were overwhelmed on Catanduanes island in the typhoon-prone Bicol region, with the state weather forecaster warning of “widespread severe flooding and landslides” on Saturday.

More than 400 people were crammed into the state government building in the capital Virac, and the new arrivals were sent to a gym, state disaster officer Roberto Monterola told AFP.

Monterola said he sent troops to force about 100 households in two coastal villages near Virac to move inland for fear that storm waves could flood their homes.

“Regardless of the exact landing point, heavy rainfall, high winds and storm surges may occur in areas outside the predicted landing zone,” the forecaster said.

Chief Josiah Echano, a disaster officer in Northern Samar province, lamented that the damage caused by typhoons was the main cause of poverty in the region.

“Whenever there is a typhoon like this, it brings us back to the medieval period, we are back to square one,” Echano told AFP as the province braced for Man-yi’s onslaught. he said.

All ships, from fishing boats to oil tankers, were ordered to remain in port or return to shore.

The volcanological agency also warned that heavy rain poured by Man-yi could trigger the flow of volcanic sediment, or lahar, from three volcanoes, including Taal, south of Manila.

Man-yi will hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season; most hurricanes develop between July and October.

Earlier this month, four storms clustered simultaneously in the Pacific basin; It was the first time such an event had been observed in November since records began in 1951, the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP on Saturday.

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