BY: News Peddlers
On Sunday, a powerful typhoon slammed into the northeastern Philippines and was barreling across the main Luzon island toward the capital in a densely populated path, evacuating thousands.
Typhoon Noru made landfall shortly before nightfall on the coastal town of Burdeos on Polillo Island in Quezon province.
With sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour (121 miles per hour) and gusts of up to 240 kilometers per hour (149 miles per hour), it was expected to weaken slightly as it approached the Sierra Madre mountain range but remain dangerously ferocious, forecasters said.
"The typhoon is strong, and we live by the sea," Marilen Yubatan, who left her Manila shanty with her two young daughters, explained. "I'm not sure where we'll end up if we fall into the water."
"I'm not sure where I'll end up with my children if we fall into the water."
The typhoon gained significant strength from a storm with sustained winds of 85 kph (53 mph) on Saturday to a super typhoon just 24 hours later in a "explosive intensification" over the open sea, according to Vicente Malano, head of the country's weather agency.
Thousands of villagers were forcibly evacuated from the path of the typhoon, as well as from mountainside villages vulnerable to landslides and flash floods. Tidal surges of up to 3 meters (about 10 feet) could hit coastal communities in Quezon province, including Polillo island and neighboring Aurora province.
The weather service warned that "the combined effects of storm surge and high waves breaking along the coast may cause life-threatening and damaging inundation or flooding."
As the sky darkened and rain began to fall in Manila's seaside slum district of Tondo, some residents hurriedly left their homes with bags of belongings and walked to a nearby evacuation center.
The head of Quezon's disaster-response office, Melchor Avenilla Jr., said law enforcement was under orders to forcibly relocate people who refused to leave their homes. "But so far, we've been able to do this simply by appealing to people," Avenilla told the AP over the phone.
Classes and government work were suspended in several provinces and cities, including the densely populated capital of Manila, on Sunday and Monday. The typhoon's eye could pass 40 to 50 kilometers (25 to 30 miles) from Manila, "which is nearly a direct hit," according to Malano.
The coast guard restricted fishing boats, inter-island and cargo ferries to port as a precaution, stranding cargo trucks and more than 2,500 passengers. More than 30 flights, mostly to domestic destinations, were canceled at Manila's airport.
The typhoon is expected to pass through the main island of Luzon overnight and into the South China Sea on Monday. It's still on track to hit Vietnam later this week, with strong winds.
Every year, the Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons. The archipelago is also located in the "Pacific Ring of Fire," a region along the Pacific Ocean's rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making Southeast Asia one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the world's strongest recorded tropical cyclones, killed or went missing over 7,300 people, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland, and displaced over 5 million people in the central Philippines — well to the south of Noru's path.
(VOA)