Philippines authorities raced to evacuate up to 1 million people yesterday as Typhoon Mitag bore down on eastern areas devastated by storms last year.
Flatbed trucks, police-chartered vans and even rubbish trucks were pressed in to service as thousands of men, women and children were moved from vulnerable areas.
The Bicol peninsula bore the brunt of Super Typhoon Durian last year which killed 1,200 people and left 200,000 homeless.
Entire villages were obliterated and hundreds were swept to their deaths in mudslides triggered by Durian, which blew away houses and uprooted trees as it slammed into the Bicol provinces.
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, who cut short an official visit to Singapore to deal with the latest typhoon, has told officials she did not want a repeat of last year's disaster and ordered pre-emptive evacuations.
She met yesterday with civil defense officials who briefed her about the movement of the typhoon and the status of the evacuation efforts.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer said up to 1 million people were being evacuated from Bicol including more than 600,000 people from Albay Province.
Civil defense officials said more than 50,000 people had already been evacuated in Bicol, which covers a long strip of land on the southern end of Luzon.
The civil defense office said preparations were taking place along the entire east coast of Luzon because the storm was changing direction, making it difficult to tell exactly where it would make landfall.
More than 2,000 people have already been evacuated in the eastern island of Catanduanes, which is expected to feel the force of the typhoon late today.
Chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said Mitag, packing maximum winds of 175kph and gusts of 210kph, would likely get stronger as it moves closer to the country. He warned that it could become a super typhoon.
Cruz said Mitag would either move west-southwest towards Bicol or toward central and northern Luzon, making landfall tomorrow morning.
"The rain path [of the typhoon] is so huge it affects three-fourths of the country so even if you are not hit by the typhoon, you are going to experience heavy rains," deputy civil defense chief Anthony Golez said.
TAIWAN
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday that Mitag could cause heavy rain for eastern and northern Taiwan next week.
Mitag was one of two typhoons that have become medium-strength typhoons east of the Philippines,senior forecaster Chang Yu-hsien (
Their close proximity has affected their paths, a situation known as the Fujiwhara Effect, he said.
"While we do not see indications that Hagibis will impact Taiwan yet, Mitag is traveling west northwest at 9 kilometers an hour so its outer ring current may affect Taiwan and bring heavy rain starting Sunday," Chang said. "Heavy rain may persist and increase in volume early next week."
Additional reporting by Meggie Lu
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the