MANILA: Four people died and hundreds fled their homes yesterday when a category three typhoon bore down on the northern Philippines, disaster officials said. Packing winds of 170kph and gusts of up to 205kph, Typhoon Goni was estimated to be 100km east of Cagayan province in the northern Philippine and was moving slowly at 7 kph west-northwest towards southern Japan.
Civil defence and regional police officials said four people died, one by drowning and three buried by landslides. Three others were injured and another was unaccounted for. “We evacuated more than 400 people in Cagayan and Batanes provinces, which bore the brunt of the typhoon,” Norma Talosig, civil defence regional director, said.
“They were moved to higher and safer ground because of rising floodwaters and possible storm surge.” More than 300 people were also evacuated in the mountainous Cordillera region, which was threatened by landslides. Goni brought heavy to intense rain, causing landslides and floodings in coastal and low-lying areas in the north, said Alexander Pama, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year, many of them deadly. Taiwan, meanwhile, is still reeling from typhoon Soudelor, which left 12 people dead or missing and caused widespread damage when it hit two weeks ago. In the mountainous hot spring town of Wulai just south of the capital Taipei 100 people have not returned to their homes as roads are still blocked with mud. “Temporary supplies of water, electricity and phone cables set up after Typhoon Soudelor could be interrupted again if Typhoon Goni introduces torrential rains to that area,” said Chiang Chien-ming, chief road engineer for the highway authorities.
Authorities plan to deploy excavators and bulldozers to Wulai while local business have cleared drainage ditches as they prepare for the typhoon. A senior official from Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said that Goni could bring rains of up to 200 millimetres (eight inches) to the east coast and mountain areas in the north. In Japan, airlines announced possible flight delays and cancellations as Goni and another strong typhoon, Atsani, neared. Atsani, with winds of up to 252km per hour, was expected to approach the Ogasawara island chain, some 1,000km south of Tokyo, according to the Japanese meteorological agency. Meanwhile, Goni is forecast to approach the Sakishima island chain in the south tomorrow, it said.
AFP
