On November 17, 2024, trees and buildings were damaged after the passage of super typhoon Manyi in Catanduanes Province, Philippines.
Philippine Red Cross | Reuters
A powerful typhoon swept through the northern Philippines on Sunday, destroying homes and triggering huge tides and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to emergency shelters, the sixth major storm to hit the country in less than a month.
Typhoon Manyi struck the eastern island province of Catanduanes on Saturday night with sustained winds of 195 kilometers (125 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 240 kilometers (149 miles) per hour. The country’s meteorological agency warned of “potentially catastrophic and life-threatening conditions” in provinces along the route.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the typhoon, which was expected to blow northwest across northern Luzon, the archipelago’s most populous region, on Sunday. The capital area of Metro Manila may not be hit directly but is under a storm warning along with remote areas warning of dangerous coastal storm surges.
“It rained very little but the wind was very strong and there was an eerie whistling sound,” Catanduanes disaster reduction officer Roberto Monterola told The Associated Press by phone. “Along one of the main roads here , the tide rose to over 7 meters (23 feet) near the seaside houses and it looked really scary.”
He said the entire province of Catanduanes was without power after the typhoon destroyed trees and power poles, and disaster relief teams were checking how many homes were damaged in addition to those affected by previous storms.
“In addition to food, we also need iron roofs and other building materials. Villagers told us that they have not recovered from past storms and are trapped again by this typhoon,” Monterola said. Nearly half of the 80,000 people in the island province have taken refuge in evacuation centers.
As the typhoon approached, Catanduanes officials were so worried that they threatened vulnerable villagers with arrest if they did not comply with orders to evacuate to safer areas. Civil Defense Assistant Secretary Cesar Idio and other provincial officials said more than 750,000 people waited in churches and shopping malls due to Hurricane Many and two previous storms, mainly in the northern Philippines. Take shelter in emergency shelters.
The rare storms and typhoons that hit Luzon in succession in just three weeks killed more than 160 people, affected 9 million people, and caused widespread damage to residential communities, infrastructure and farmland. The Philippines may have to import more supplies, rice, A staple food for most Filipinos. In an emergency meeting as Manyi approached, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked his cabinet and provincial officials to prepare for “the worst-case scenario.”
At least 26 domestic airports and two international airports were temporarily closed due to rough sea conditions, and inter-island ferry and cargo services were suspended, leaving thousands of passengers and commuters stranded, according to the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority and the Coast Guard.
Manila’s treaty ally the United States, as well as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, provided cargo flights and other storm assistance to bolster the government’s overwhelmed disaster relief agencies. Last month, the first major storm, Trami, brought one to two months’ worth of rain to several towns in just 24 hours, killing dozens of people.
The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms every year. It is frequently hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
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