Manila, Dec 15, (dpa/GNA) – Thousands of residents from high-risk areas in the eastern and southern Philippines, were evacuated on Wednesday as the country braced for Typhoon Rai, authorities said.
Rai was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (kph), and gusts of up to 150 kph as it moved closer to the country’s southern island of Mindanao, the weather bureau said.
It was expected to make landfall over northern Mindanao or the eastern Visayas region on Thursday afternoon or evening, the bureau added.
The national disaster agency said pre-emptive evacuation was ongoing in at least five eastern and southern provinces. In the southern province of Surigao Del Sur, at least 2,000 people have been evacuated, the provincial governor said.
“Close to 16 million people live in the five regions that are expected to be most affected, 3.8 million of them are below the poverty line,” according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
While there was no threat of Rai becoming a super typhoon, it was “still a strong cyclone and would bring harm and damage to the affected areas,” said Ricardo Jalad, head of the national disaster agency.
“The typhoon would bring heavy to intense rains, that could in turn result in flooding and landslides,” he warned.
The Philippine archipelago is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones every year.
The strongest typhoon ever to hit the Philippines was Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,300 people and displaced more than 4 million in November 2013.
GNA