A typhoon was set to hit the Philippines on Christmas Day tomorrow, officials said yesterday as millions of people criss-cross the mostly Catholic nation to celebrate one of the most important dates on the religious calendar.
Nock-Ten is expected to be packing winds of up to 194kph and gusts of nearly 241kph when it hits the eastern tip of the main island of Luzon tomorrow, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.
“Our people are being made aware that we could get hit on Christmas Day,” Romina Marasigan, spokeswoman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told reporters.
Photo: EPA
“The highest levels of preparedness are being undertaken,” she said, including stocking up designated evacuation centers with food and other provisions.
Millions of Filipinos are traveling by land, sea or air to their hometowns for the festive holiday.
Local weather authorities said the storm could brush past Manila after Christmas Day if it maintained its current path.
The main threats were landslides and flash floods from heavy rains, as well as potentially large waves known as storm surges smashing through coastal communities, they said.
The Philippine islands are often the first major landmass to be hit by storms that generate over the Pacific. The Southeast Asian country endures about 20 major storms each year, many of them deadly.
The most powerful and deadliest was Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead or missing and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.
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