Super typhoon Noru hit the northern Philippines on Monday, killing five rescuers, causing floods and power outages, and forcing the suspension of classes and the closure of public services.
Typhoon Noru (Karding, Philippines), the most powerful to hit the country this year, made landfall in the city of Bordeaux in Quezon province before sunset on Sunday, and weakened as it passed through Luzon during the night.
On the island, where the capital Manila is located, thousands of people were evacuated from their homes to emergency shelters, some by force, authorities admitted.
Governor of Bulacan province north of Manila, Daniel Fernando, said the five rescuers, helping residents trapped by floodwaters, were hit by a collapsing wall.
All five men drowned in the raging waters, Fernando told DZMM radio.
On Polillo Island, northeast of Quezon province, a man was injured when he fell from a roof, authorities said.
In Quezon alone, more than 17,000 people have been moved from high-risk communities prone to flooding and landslides to emergency shelters.
More than 3,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the Manila metro area, hit by strong winds and rain overnight.
Classes and public services were suspended today in the capital and neighboring provinces, as a precautionary measure.
The provinces of Aurora and Nueva Ecija in the northern Philippines were left without power today, with crews already working on the ground to restore power, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla told President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. broadcast on television.
According to the Philippine Meteorological Disaster Agency, it entered the category of “super typhoon” after a period of “explosive intensification”, with sustained winds of up to 195 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 240 kilometers per hour.
Around 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines on average each year.
The archipelago is also located on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a region along the edge of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the Philippines one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world. .
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the world’s strongest recorded tropical cyclones, killed and disappeared more than 7,300 people in the central Philippines, forcing more than five million people to flee their homes. homes.
Source: TSF
