The Philippine weather bureau yesterday downgraded Typhoon Maysak into a storm as thousands of people were told to leave the country’s northeastern coastline, where it was headed from the Pacific after killing four people and destroying hundreds of homes in Micronesia.
The bureau said winds and rains were to start lashing the eastern seaboard of the main island of Luzon last night before the storm makes landfall early today.
The bureau changed the category of Typhoon Maysak to a tropical storm after its sustained winds weakened to 115kph with gusts of 145kph at about 4pm.
Photo: AFP
Under the Philippine weather system, only cyclones with sustained winds of 118kph or higher are classified as typhoons.
The off-season storm comes as the nation marks Holy Week, when many local and foreign tourists visit beach resorts, including popular surfing areas in the north.
Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Cheche Cabrera said that in Aurora Province alone, which faces the Pacific and lies in the storm’s path, about 10,000 visitors were told to leave beach resorts and inns.
Maysak, first forecast as a super typhoon, left a path of destruction in Micronesia, sweeping through Chuuk State’s numerous islands and passing just north of Yap State’s outer islands on Wednesday. The storm killed four people and caused extensive damage.
Philippine Civil Defense Administrator Alexander Pama said the critical hours would come overnight.
“We need to double up the preparations because it is harder to move around in the dark,” he said.
While it was still a typhoon, Maysak threatened to affect 33 cities and close to 500 towns in more than two dozen provinces, according to Phillipine Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Austere Panadero.
On Friday, Mayor Nelianto Bihasa of Baler, the capital of Aurora Province, ordered all tourists in resorts to leave or face forced evacuation.
He also told resort owners to advise guests headed to Baler to postpone trips.
About 20 storms and typhoons enter the Philippines yearly. In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest on record to make landfall, devastated the central Philippines, killing more than 7,300 people.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS