Super Typhoon Megi smashed into the northern Philippines yesterday, causing landslides in mountainous areas, whipping up huge waves along the coast and killing at least one person.
Forecasters said Megi was probably the most powerful storm in the world this year and the strongest to hit the Philippines since Typhoon Durian unleashed mudslides that buried entire towns and killed more than 1,000 people in 2006.
It pummelled remote coastal areas of the northern Philippines with gusts of up to 260 kilometres an hour yesterday morning as it made landfall, tearing roofs off houses and bringing down power lines.
“We are marooned inside our home. We can not go out. The winds and rain are very strong. Many trees are being uprooted or snapped in half,” Ernesto Macadangdang, a resident of Burgos town in Isabela province, told DZBB radio.
Megi’s force slowed after making landfall with maximum wind gusts of 215 kilometres an hour, but it continued to dump rain across the northern half of the main island of Luzon throughout the afternoon.
The northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan were the first to feel the typhoon’s fury yesterday morning.
“There are landslides in the mountains, we have swells, storm surges and big waves along the coastline, and now we have flood alerts,” chief weatherman Graciano Yumol said in an interview with GMA 7 television.
Isabela and other provinces in Megi’s direct path are mostly agricultural and fishing areas, with a few million residents who are well-drilled in preparing for the many storms that hit each year.
More than 3,000 people had already been moved from their homes in the northern provinces as part of a “pre-emptive evacuation” of threatened areas, the civil defence office said.
Local television showed footage of debris, including fallen trees and electrical posts, littering the highway leading to Isabela’s provincial capital Ilagan just hours after Megi hit land.
Flights to and from northern Luzon were also suspended and ships there were told not to leave port.
Military, police and relief agencies had positioned supplies and rescue units to provide swift assistance to any affected areas, the civil defence office reported.
The government said the US military had also offered six heavy lift helicopters to help if needed.
Authorities reported one death by late yesterday afternoon, but with many areas remained cut off from communications, officials fear the death toll could rise.
Cagayan province governor Alvaro Antonio said rising waters had made many bridges impassable, adding that strong winds made it dangerous to venture out.
“You cannot travel. It is very dangerous even if you use a vehicle. The wind is very strong and the rains are getting stronger,” he said.
“We cannot as of yet give you a complete picture or assessment of the extent of the damage.”
The sole reported fatality was of a man who drowned in a river while fishing, the nation’s civil defence chief, Benito Ramos, told reporters.