Philippines evacuates thousands of people in the run-up to Typhoon Yinxing

Text size

The Philippines has evacuated thousands of people from coastal communities ahead of a major typhoon, officials said Thursday, just weeks after a tropical cyclone killed at least 150 people.

With maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour, Typhoon Yinxing could make landfall in the northern Philippines later today or early Friday, the state weather agency said.

Yinxing is the third storm to threaten the Philippines in less than a month after severe Tropical Storm Trami and Super Typhoon Kong-rey combined to kill 158 people, the national disaster agency said, attributing most of that number to Trami.

At least 17,000 people from coastal areas of Cagayan province, in the country’s far north, moved to temporary shelters on Wednesday to avoid possible flooding from heavy rains now ravaging the region, provincial rescue official Rueli Rapsing told AFP.

“I expect more evacuees will arrive as evacuations are ongoing in the municipalities,” Rapsing said.

The national weather agency said Cagayan, home to about 1.3 million people, could bear the brunt of Yinxing based on its current trajectory.

“We have already exhausted the province’s rapid response fund and we are actually asking the national disaster council to replenish the rapid response fund so that we can provide relief,” Rapsing said.

In Ilocos Norte province, near Cagayan, rescue workers were on standby to assist local police, firefighters and soldiers in emergency response, provincial rescue official Randy Nicolas told AFP.

Nicolas said they are closely monitoring possible landslides, flooding and swelling of rivers in the province, with storm surges – huge waves along the coast, also a problem in Ilocos Norte and Cagayan.

Disaster officials in the mountainous province of Apayao said nearly 500 people have been evacuated.

“We have really prioritized preventive evacuations because we want zero deaths here in Apayao,” provincial disaster official Aldrin Agmata told AFP.

Schools have been suspended in many parts of the north and President Ferdinand Marcos has put all government agencies on high alert so they can respond quickly.

“Remember that every life matters, so we must always be prepared,” Marcos said in a statement on Wednesday.

pam/cgm/tym