MANILA: Typhoon Bopha smashed into the southern Philippines Tuesday, uprooting
trees and bringing drenching rains as more than 40,000 people crammed into
shelters to escape the storm's onslaught.
Bopha -- packing gusts of up to
210 kilometres (130 miles) an hour -- made landfall on Mindanao's east coast at
dawn, raking across the island of 10 million people.
It uprooted trees and blew off
roofs made of light materials, according to residents and AFP reporters on the
ground, with cities plunged into darkness after authorities cut power supplies.
There were no immediate reports
of casualties or serious damage but the island was in lockdown, with residents
of coastal and flood-prone areas moving into shelters as floods hit some areas.
Aviation and shipping were
suspended, with 80 flights grounded and thousands of ferry passengers stranded
as the coastguard ordered vessels to stay in port, the civil defence office
said.
More than 41,000 people had moved
into nearly 1,000 government shelters across the island by early Tuesday, it
said in its latest bulletin.
Large parts of Mindanao were
without power after supplies were shut down to cut the risk of fires and
electrocutions, according to Liza Mazo, regional civil defence official.
"Power was lost before dawn.
There were reports of powerful winds, high waves and possible storm surge
threatening some coastal areas," she said.
"We are hoping and praying
that there will be no casualties."
People living in the storm-hit
area braced for the worst of the typhoon, the strongest cyclone to hit the
Philippines this year.
"We have taken our pigs and
chickens inside our house because their shed might be destroyed,"
46-year-old shopkeeper Marianita Villamor of San Fermin town on Mindanao's east
coast told AFP by telephone.
"The winds were howling and
I could hear the trees falling to the ground since early this morning."
Villamor said her relatives who
lived in a nearby coastal area had joined hundreds of other families who moved
into temporary shelters including schools and other government buildings late
Monday.
"I have not heard from then
since because (mobile phone) signals have been on and off," she said.
"I hope they are dry and safe."
The commercial centre of Cagayan
de Oro, one of Mindanao's largest cities, was hit by flooding as rivers
overflowed following heavy rain.
Schools were shut in Mindanao and
across large areas of the central Philippines.
President Benigno Aquino led
calls for evacuations on Monday, saying: "(Bopha's) destructive potential
is no laughing matter. It is expected to be the strongest typhoon to hit our
country in 2012."
The Philippines is battered by
about 20 typhoons a year, some of them destructive. Bopha is the sixteenth so
far this year.
In August, nearly 100 people were
killed and more than a million were displaced by heavy flooding caused by a
series of storms.
Nineteen typhoons struck the
country last year, of which 10 were destructive, leading to more than 1,500
deaths and affecting nearly 10 per cent of the total population, according to
the government.
- AFP/fa/ck
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Health care and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN 's area. We are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, if any request, please, contact directly Dr Christian SIODMAK, business strategist, owner and CEO of SBC at christian.siodmak@gmail.com. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment