Typhoon Mangkhut hits the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has begun evacuating coastal regions before the storm makes landfall, which is expected to be some time on Saturday, Mirror reported.
The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms a year, so, rescue workers and emergency services are in the standby mode all the time. The meteorological service says Mangkhut is the strongest so far in 2018 – 900km in diameter, with sustained winds of at least 209 km/h.
Once it has swept over the Philippines, Mangkhut will continue to China where millions more are at risk in areas along the coast. On Thursday, thousands are evacuating seaside areas of the northern tip of the main Philippine island of Luzon, where the storm is expected to make landfall early Saturday.
‘The pre-emptive evacuation is going on in our coastal municipalities, the villages that are prone to storm surge,’
local government spokesman Rogelio Sending said.
In 2013, the Philippines faced the deadliest storm on record, the super typhoon Haiyan killed more than 7,000 people and affected millions. In Hong Kong preparations are already under way for the storm, though the latest forecasts suggest Mangkhut will pass to the south of the territory later in the weekend.
