Philippine authorities on Monday rushed to distribute aid to evacuees after Typhoon Noru slammed into the main island of Luzon, killing at least five people and forcing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to suspend work and schools while authorities closed currency, stock and bond markets. The typhoon, locally called Karding, had maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of up to 170 kph, the Pagasa weather office said in a report at 5 a.m. Monday. It was last located off the coast of Zambales province in central Luzon and headed into the South China Sea on its way to Vietnam.
The strongest typhoon to hit the country this year hit the coast in the town of Burdeos in Quezon province before dark on Sunday before weakening as it swept through the main Luzon region overnight, where thousands of people were moved to emergency shelters, some forcibly, officials said.Governor Daniel Fernando of Bulacan province, north of Manila, said five rescuers who were using a boat to help residents trapped in floodwaters were hit by a collapsed wall and then apparently drowned in the raging waters.
“They were living heroes who helped save the lives of our countrymen in the midst of this disaster,” Fernando told . “This is very sad indeed. A man was injured after falling from the roof of his house in Polillo Island in northeastern Quezon province, officials said. More than 17,000 people have been moved to emergency shelters from high-risk communities prone to tidal waves, flooding and landslides in Quezon alone, officials said.
More than 3,000 people were evacuated to safety in metropolitan Manila, which was lashed by strong winds and rain overnight. Classes and government work were suspended as a precaution in the capital and outlying provinces on Monday, although morning skies were sunny.
The entire northern provinces of Aurora and Nueva Ecija, which were hit by the typhoon, remained without power on Monday and repair crews were working to restore electricity, Energy Minister Raphael Lotilla told President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a televised meeting he called for an assessment. damage and coordinate disaster response. Marcos Jr. praised officials for evacuating thousands of people to safety as a precaution against the typhoon’s onslaught, averting a large death toll despite Noru’s potentially catastrophic strength. He ordered supplies to be flown in and cleaning facilities provided to the most affected communities.
“The point at which we can retreat is when most of the evacuees are already back home,” Marcos told a news conference with disaster management officials on Monday, referring to the 74,000 people forced into evacuation centers by the storm. As of Monday morning, Noru had sustained winds of 140 km/h (87 mph) and gusts of 170 km/h (105 mph) and was moving west at 30 km/h (19 mph) in the South China Sea, according to the weather agency.
About 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines every year. The archipelago also lies in the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area along most of the Pacific Ocean’s rim that experiences many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, making the Southeast Asian nation one of the most disaster-prone in the world.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the world’s strongest tropical cyclones on record, left more than 7,300 dead or missing, leveled entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines – well south of Norway.
