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Typhoon Utor hits Philippines

"What we are trying to avoid here is people getting trapped."

Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albay Province

Thousands of people in an eastern province devastated by a powerful typhoon last week were told to evacuate yesterday after another storm slammed into the central Philippines.

Typhoon Utor, packing sustained winds of 120km per hour, made landfall in Guiuan town in the Eastern Samar province at noon yesterday.

It is expected to cross the central Visayas region toward the South China Sea, chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said.

The new typhoon's path is just south of the eastern Bicol region where more than 1,000 people were killed or missing when it was battered by Super Typhoon Durian last week.

RE-EVACUATION

Fernando Gonzales, governor of the worst-hit province of Albay, said about 15,000 people from about a dozen villages were ordered to evacuate to temporary shelters in government buildings, schools and churches.

That included many villages that were recently wiped out by volcanic mudslides triggered by record rainfall.

The residents were told to stay until the storm passes.

"What we are trying to avoid here is people getting trapped," he said.

Gonzales said that jittery residents were more cooperative now than previously with local government officials who had ordered their evacuation from the area and that many had already moved out on their own.

TYPHOON DURIAN

The National Disaster Coordinating Council in Manila said more than 100,000 people were already at evacuation centers following last week's typhoon.

Typhoon Durian unleashed tons of rocks and other volcanic debris from the slopes of Mayon volcano, Bicol's most famous landmark, pounding helpless villages with layers of mud and enormous boulders.

Many residents whose houses have been destroyed or covered in debris have returned to salvage personal belongings, sometimes staying in the community and sleeping under makeshift huts.

DONATIONS

Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsongkram said that his government had donated 1,000 sacks of rice as relief aid for the typhoon victims.

Meanwhile, national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao said that police officers who had been sent to the region from Manila in order to help provide security for the ASEAN and East Asia summits would gradually return home to the Philippine capital.

Pagdilao added, however, that police officers that had been called in from other parts of the region would have to remain in the town of Cebu to prepare for the chance that they would be needed for disaster relief operations following the chaotic aftermath of the latest in a string of aggressive typhoons.
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