Tens of thousands evacuate to safe areas as typhoon approaches eastern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine authorities ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate to safer places and banned fishermen from going to sea in a central-eastern region on Monday, as a typhoon approached from the Pacific. Authorities warned of torrential rain and potential deadly storm surges of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet).

The latest data placed Typhoon Kalmaegi about 235 kilometers (146 miles) east of the town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar province, packing sustained winds of up to 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 150 km/h (93 mph), and was forecast to make landfall later on Monday.

It was expected to move west overnight and into Tuesday, hitting central island provinces, including Cebu, which is still recovering from a magnitude 6.9 earthquake on Sept. 30. The quake killed at least 79 people and displaced thousands of people after their homes collapsed or were severely damaged.

Kalmaegi, called Tino in the Philippines, was expected to strengthen further over the Philippine Sea before making landfall in the town of Guiuan or nearby municipalities, where Eastern Samar Governor RV Evardone said he had issued mandatory evacuation orders starting Monday with the help of army troops, police, firefighters and disaster mitigation contingents.

More than 70,000 people in the coastal towns of Guiuan, Mercedes and Salcedo were ordered to move to evacuation centers or concrete houses and buildings certified as strong enough to withstand the impact of the typhoon. Coastal areas were warned of storm surges up to three meters (nearly 10 feet) high, Evardone said.

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, made landfall in Guiuan in November 2013 and then devastated the central Philippines. More than 7,300 people were killed or missing, entire towns were razed and dozens of ships were stranded inland. Haiyan demolished around a million homes and displaced more than four million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

“No one complains among the residents because of their experience with Yolanda. They know it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Evardone told The Associated Press, referring to Haiyan’s Filipino name. “Then they saw bodies scattered everywhere in the streets. Many lost everything.”

Thousands of villagers were also being evacuated from island provinces near Eastern Samar, officials said, and disaster response agencies, including the coast guard, were on alert.

The Philippines is hit by around 20 typhoons and storms every year. It is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.