One million people evacuated as Philippines hit by super typhoon

1 November 2020, 03:44

Philippines Asia Typhoon
Philippines Asia Typhoon. Picture: PA

Parts of the country are still recovery from another storm which left 22 dead last week.

A super typhoon slammed into the eastern Philippines with ferocious winds early on Sunday as about a million people were evacuated in its projected path, including in the capital where the main international airport was ordered to close.

Typhoon Goni hit the island province of Catanduanes at dawn with sustained winds of 140 miles an hour and gusts of 174 mph. It was blowing west toward densely populated regions, including Manila, and rain-soaked provinces still recovering from a typhoon that hit a week ago and left at least 22 dead.

“There are so many people who are really in vulnerable areas,” said Ricardo Jalad, who heads the government’s disaster-response agency. “We’re expecting major damage.”

The country’s weather agency said in an urgent advisory: “Within the next 12 hours, catastrophic violent winds and intense to torrential rainfall associated with the region of the eyewall and inner rain bands of the typhoon will be experienced.”

Philippines Asia Typhoon
Authorities are expecting major damage from the typhoon (AP)

It said Catanduanes and four other provinces will be first hit, including Albay, where tens of thousands of villagers have been moved to safety, especially near the active Mayon volcano, where mudflows have caused deaths during past storms.

Residents have been warned of likely landslides, massive flooding, storm surges of more than 16 feet and ferocious wind that can blow away shanties.

One of the most powerful typhoons in the world this year, Goni has evoked memories of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, which left more than 7,300 people dead and missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines.

Mr Jalad said nearly a million people have been preemptively moved into emergency shelters, mostly schools and government buildings, while he warned of storm surges that could inundate coastal villages, including in Manila Bay.

Asia Typhoon
The super typhoon slammed into the eastern Philippines with violent winds early on Sunday (NASA/AP)

Forecasters said the typhoon’s eye may hit or graze metropolitan Manila, the densely populated capital region of more than 13 million, between late Sunday and early Monday and asked the public to brace for the worst.

The typhoon may considerably weaken after it hits the Sierra Madre mountain range, then cross the main northern Luzon island toward the South China Sea.

Manila’s main airport was ordered shut down for 24 hours from Sunday to Monday and airlines cancelled dozens of international and domestic flights.

The military and national police, along with the coast guard and firefighters, have been put on full alert.

Philippines Asia Typhoon
Residents, including in Camarines Sur province, eastern Philippines, are being evacuated ahead of the worst of Goni (Philippine Coast Guard/AP)

The war-like typhoon preparations will further strain government resources, which have been drained with months of coronavirus outbreaks that prompted the government to set up isolation and treatment centres when hospitals were overwhelmed and provide aid to more than 20 million poor Filipinos.

The Philippines has reported more than 380,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases, the second-highest in south-east Asia, with 7,221 deaths.

Displaced villagers may have to stay longer in evacuation centres even after Goni exits Tuesday due to another storm brewing in the Pacific that may affect the Philippines in a few days, Mr Jalad said.

The Philippines is lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.

It is also located in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active region around the Pacific where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common and makes the impoverished Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 million people one of the world’s most disaster-prone.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’