Typhoon Noru was churning at sea, with sustained winds of 121 mph and gusts of up to 149 mph.
A violent typhoon altered and quickly gained intensity Sunday as it swept closer to the northeastern Philippines, triggering evacuations from high-risk communities and the capital, officials said.
At mid-afternoon, Typhoon Noru was swirling at sea approximately 71 miles east of Infanta, Quezon province, with sustained winds of 121 miles per hour and gusts of up to 149 miles per hour. Forecasters predict it will hit the coast later Sunday.
Noru shifted course southward as it approached the archipelago, forced down by a high-pressure region to the north. It acquired significant intensity, shifting from a storm with sustained gusts of 53 mph on Saturday to a super typhoon barely 24 hours later in an “explosive intensification” at sea, according to Vicente Malano, head of the country’s weather bureau.
Thousands of villagers were evacuated – some forcibly – from the typhoon’s path, as well as from mountainside villages prone to landslides and flash floods, and coastal communities in Quezon province, including Polillo island and nearby Aurora province, that could be hit by tidal surges of up to 10 feet.
“The combined effects of storm surge and high waves breaking along the coast may cause life-threatening and damaging inundation or flooding,” the weather agency cautioned.
As the sky darkened and rain began to pour in Manila’s beachfront slum area of Tondo, several inhabitants rapidly fled their houses with bags of goods and headed to a nearby evacuation centre.
“The typhoon is strong, and we live by the sea,” said 50-year-old Marilen Yubatan, who left their hut with her two young daughters. “If we fall into the water, I don’t know where I will end up with my children.”
The head of Quezon’s disaster-response agency, Melchor Avenilla Jr., said law enforcement was under instructions to forcefully relocate residents who refused to leave their houses. “But so far, we’ve been able to achieve this just by appealing to people,” Avenilla told the Associated Press via phone.
Classes and government activities were stopped in several provinces and cities, including the heavily crowded metropolis of Manila, on Sunday and Monday. The typhoon’s eye might pass around 25-30 miles from Manila, “which is virtually a direct strike,” according to Milano.
The coast guard limited fishing boats, inter-island and cargo ferries to port as a precaution, stranding cargo vehicles and more than 2,500 people. More than 30 flights, largely to domestic destinations, were cancelled at Manila’s airport.
The storm is expected to pass past the main island of Luzon tonight and into the South China Sea on Monday. It is still on pace to strike Vietnam later this week with strong winds.
Every year, the Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons. The archipelago is also located in the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area around the Pacific Ocean’s rim where frequent volcano eruptions and earthquakes occur, making Southeast Asia one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the world’s strongest known tropical cyclones, killed or missing over 7,300 people, entire devastated communities, carried ships inland and displaced over 5 million people in the central Philippines – much to the south of Noru’s route.
