MANILA — Super Typhoon Noru slammed into the
Philippines Sunday, battering the heavily populated main island of Luzon with
strong winds and heavy rain that have forced thousands of people to flee their
homes.
اضافة اعلان
The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of
195km/h as it charged towards the archipelago nation after an unprecedented
“explosive intensification”, the state weather forecaster said.
Noru, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines
this year, made landfall in Burdeos municipality on the Polillo islands, part
of
Quezon province, at 5:30pm (9:30am GMT).
Videos posted on social media and verified by AFP
showed trees swaying wildly as wind and rain whipped across the islands.
The weather bureau issued warnings late Sunday for
“serious flooding” in vulnerable areas of the capital Manila and nearby
provinces as Noru dumped heavy rain.
“We ask residents living in danger zones to adhere
to calls for evacuation whenever necessary,” Philippine National Police chief
Gen. Rodolfo Azurin said.
The Philippines is regularly ravaged by storms, with
scientists warning they are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer
because of climate change.
Noru weakened to a typhoon as it swept across
central Luzon. It is expected to enter the
South China Sea on Monday and head
towards Vietnam.
“Typhoons are like engines — you need a fuel and an
exhaust to function,” said weather forecaster Robb Gile.
“In the case of Karding, it has a good fuel because
it has plenty of warm waters along its track and then there is a good exhaust
in the upper level of the atmosphere — so it’s a good recipe for explosive
intensification,” he added, using the local name for the storm.
The storm hit about 100km northeast of Manila.
Emergency personnel braced for the possibility of strong winds and heavy rain
battering the capital, home to more than 13 million people.
Forced evacuations were under way in some high-risk
areas of the metropolis, including impoverished communities living in flimsy
shacks along rivers.
Calm before the storm
Noru came nine months after
another super typhoon devastated swathes of the country, killing more than 400
people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
More than 8,300 people fled their homes before the
latest storm hit, including residents in several municipalities in Quezon,
disaster officials said.
In the neighboring province of
Aurora, residents of
Dingalan municipality were forced to seek shelter.
The weather bureau warned of dangerous storm surges
more than 3m high along the coast of Aurora and Quezon, including the Polillo
islands, along with widespread flooding and landslides as the storm soaks the
region.
It could topple coconut and mango trees, and cause
“severe losses” to rice and corn crops in the heavily agricultural region,
while inundating villages.
The coast guard reported more than 2,500 people had
been left stranded by ferry cancelations as vessels took shelter ahead of the
storm.
Dozens of flights in and out of Manila were also
canceled.
School classes and non-essential government services have
been suspended for Monday.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
