Manila – Typhoon Nock-Ten slammed into the eastern Philippines on Christmas Day, forcing more than 200,000 people to flee their homes, officials said.
Nearly 13,000 passengers were stranded after sea travel was suspended and 48 domestic and international flights were cancelled because of the bad weather.
Nock-Ten made landfall on Sunday over the town of Bato in the eastern province of Catanduanes with maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 225 kph, the weather bureau said.
It was moving west at 15 kph, and would bring heavy rainfall within a 500-kilometre diameter, the bureau added.
Coastal areas were warned of storm surges reaching up to 2.5 metres. Power was cut off in some affected provinces, while a number of roads became impassable because of toppled trees and landslides, local disaster relief officials said.
In the province of Camarines Sur, Governor Miguel Villafuerte promised to provide roasted pork to residents who moved to evacuation centres to make sure they were still able to celebrate Christmas.
“I know it is Christmas … but this is a legitimate typhoon,” he tweeted. “Please evacuate, I will bring lechon [whole roasted pig] to the evacuation centres.”
More than 101,000 people moved to evacuation centres in Camarines Sur, while 18,650 residents fled their homes in Catanduanes, the national disaster reduction office said.
In nearby Abay province, more than 92,000 people spent the night in evacuation centres or moved in with relatives and friends living away from coastal communities.
The weather bureau raised storm warnings in 38 provinces, including Manila, where the typhoon was expected to pass on Monday. Nock-Ten was forecast to blow out of the Philippines by Wednesday.
An average of 20 typhoons batter the Philippines every year. In November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people and left more than a thousand missing in the eastern Philippines.
Haiyan, the worst to hit the archipelago in decades, was one of the most powerful storms in the world to make landfall.
-dpa
