The Philippine authorities ordered the evacuation of thousands of people on Tuesday before the approach, from the north of the country, of super typhoon Doksuri, the local meteorological agency announced.
Doksuri, with winds of 185 kilometers per hour (km/h), is heading toward a group of three sparsely populated islands off the northern tip of the main island of Luzon, the agency said.
It is expected to reach or pass very close to the Babuyan Islands or Cagayan province, in the northeast of the country, on Wednesday afternoon, where more than 200 mm of rain is expected for Tuesday, it added.
The storm is expected to spread to Taiwan and eastern China.
Three of the five Babuyan Islands are inhabited by about 20,000 people.
People living on the shores of these islands have been ordered to leave their homes and fishermen to pull their boats out of the water, local disaster management officer Charles Castillejos said.
“We send the police to convince those who refuse to leave,” he added.
The meteorological agency warned about the possibility of waves of more than three meters along the coast, in addition to heavy rains in the northern mountainous provinces, in the coming days, with the occurrence of landslides being “very likely”.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 major storms a year, killing hundreds of people and animals and worsening poverty in vast regions.
Scientists have warned that these storms are getting stronger due to climate change.
Source: TSF
