Typhoon Utor tore across the central Philippines yesterday, leaving four dead or missing and forcing nearly 67,000 to evacuate as officials battled to avoid a second disaster within 10 days.
The mass evacuation was intended to avert any repeat of the devastation of Super Typhoon Durian just over a week ago which unleashed massive mudslides in the eastern Bicol region that left more than 1,000 people dead or missing.
Utor has already forced the government to postpone two key regional summits this week in the central island of Cebu, which is in the path of the storm -- although sources say the real reason may be a terror threat.
In all, 66,700 people were evacuated nationwide ahead of Utor's onslaught, more than 59,000 of them in Bicol alone even though the storm was not expected to hit the region directly.
The storm hit Samar and Masbate islands overnight, forcing residents of coastal and low-lying areas to seek higher ground.
As of 10:45am yesterday Utor was over the southern tip of Mindoro island, packing maximum winds of 120km near the center and moving northwest at 17km per hour, the government weather station said.
Residents on the western island, 120km south of the capital, Manila, were yesterday advised to seek higher ground due to possible flash floods and big waves.
The typhoon passed just north of Borakay, a popular tourist destination known for its white sand beaches.
By tomorrow, it was expected to be northwest of Coron town in the western island of Palawan.
Parts of the central island of Cebu lost power due to the storm and a power barge -- a floating generator supplying electricity to the central island of Romblon -- spilled some of its fuel, causing an oil spill, the civil defense office said.
As heavy rains lashed the Bicol region, families huddled in schools and churches serving as evacuation centers, sleeping on mats and cardboard sheets laid upon concrete floors.
Some of those evacuated were allowed to return home after sunrise but others were told to stay in the evacuation centers due to fears the continuing rains would result in new mudslides.
Utor is expected to head out to the South China Sea during the next 48 hours on a path that could take it towards northern Vietnam or south China and Hong Kong.
"We expect the typhoon to intensify as it heads over the south China Sea," said Nathaniel Cruz, head of the weather forecasting at the Philippines' national weather bureau.
Power, water and communications lines across much of the region remain out of action following Super Typhoon Durian which struck on Nov. 30.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion