Philippines feels brunt of super typhoon

MANILA－Super Typhoon Goni, the strongest typhoon to make landfall in the world since 2013, hammered Bicol, the southernmost region of the main Philippine island of Luzon, early on Sunday, the state weather bureau said.

With ferocious winds, it has killed at least seven people and causing volcanic mudflows to bury houses before weakening as it blew toward Manila.

Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara said at least four people were killed in the hard-hit province of Albay, including a father and son who were in a rural community that was hit by mudflows and boulders swept down from Mayon Volcano by heavy rains.

Between 19 million and 31 million people in the Philippines, about a quarter of the country's population, could be affected by Goni, the country's disaster body said on Sunday.

"Our predictive analytics reflect between 19 million and 31 million individuals will possibly be affected by the storm based on the population count in the areas within the typhoon track," Mark Timbal, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told reporters.

The state weather bureau said Goni, which is also the most powerful typhoon to form in the world this year, was packing maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometers an hour near the center and gusts of up to 310 km/h.

Goni, the 18th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, passed through Quezon province and the rest of the region south of Manila, possibly weakening, and it was expected to head into the South China Sea.

Strong winds and heavy rainfall were experienced on Sunday morning, as Goni moves west-southwest at 25 km/h.

The typhoon knocked out power in several towns and prompted the evacuation of about a million people in its path, including in Manila. There the main airport was ordered closed for 24 hours until Monday, and dozens of domestic and international flights were canceled.

On full alert

The Philippine Coast Guard ordered dozens of ports closed, leaving travelers stranded. The military and national police, along with the coast guard, were put on full alert.

In Manila, officials ordered big roadside advertising boards taken down, fearing strong winds could knock it down and injure people.

Goni struck close to regions slammed by Typhoon Molave early last week, which killed 22 people and destroyed infrastructure and crops.

Typhoons and tropical storms regularly hit the Philippines from June through December, claiming hundreds of lives and causing billions of dollars in damage.

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the world's worst, killed more than 7,000 in the central Philippines in November 2013.

Thousands of residents in Tacloban, capital of Leyte province, drowned in a "two-story-high" storm surge, killing people who sought safety in a sports stadium that served as a shelter.

The Philippines is located in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, and is among the most disaster-prone countries in the world. It is forced to cope with active volcanoes, frequent earthquakes, and an average of 20 typhoons a year, causing floods and landslides up and down the archipelago.

The country lost 463 billion pesos (about $9.56 billion) in damage to natural disasters from 2010 to 2019, the official Philippine Statistics Authority said.

Xinhua - Agencies