The Philippine authorities began this Monday to evacuate towns, with the evacuation of thousands of people, to close schools and offices and to prohibit navigation due to the approach of Typhoon Mawar to the northern provinces of the country.
According to the authorities, the typhoon has winds of 155 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 190 kilometers per hour, but the data indicates that the mountainous region was saved from a “direct impact”.
Current projections show the typhoon heading northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan.
Although a considerable slowdown is expected, Philippine authorities warned of dangerous tides, flash floods and landslides as the typhoon tore through the far-northern province of Batanes from Tuesday to Wednesday, the Associated Press news agency reports. .
The army, police, firefighters and volunteer groups are prepared for search and rescue operations in the northern provinces and more than a million food packages have been prepared for any contingency, according to the authorities.
More than 4,800 people were evacuated to emergency shelters in Cagayan, Batanes and other provinces.
The Mawar, locally called Betty, approached the Philippine coast on Saturday, with the government predicting heavy rain, flooding and landslides in the north of the archipelago.
Given these weather forecasts, Unicef has pre-positioned emergency material and equipment for almost ten thousand families, aimed at responding to the needs of people affected by damage with an impact on drinking water, sanitation, hygiene, nutrition, education and child protection. .
This is the second tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in 2023 and the first super typhoon, and the archipelago is expecting as many as ten such events this year, due to El Niño warming Pacific waters and triggering more cyclones to form.
On Wednesday night, the storm struck the island of Guam, an unincorporated US territory in Micronesia, where it left a trail of destruction, though no fatalities or serious injuries were reported.
Source: TSF
