A typhoon slammed into central Philippineslate on Sunday, bringing strong winds and heavy rain and cutting off power, but there were no immediate reports of
casualties, weather officials and radio reports said.
Typhoon Nina (also known as Nock-ten) was packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph (115mph), with gusts up to 255kph when it made landfall over Catanduanes province on the Bicol peninsula, which was under the highest storm alert on Sunday evening.The typhoon made a second landfall over Camarines Sur province, then weakened slightly with winds of 175kph but gusts at 290kph, the weather bureau said.
“We continue to pray, stay positive and stay alert. Brownout in a lot of areas already,” Camarines Sur governor Miguel Luis Villafuerte said in a post on his Instagram account.Communication lines have been cut in some areas, radio reports said.
Heavy rainfall, destructive winds and battering waves were threatening heavily populated rural and urban regions, where the Philippine weather agency raised typhoon warnings, stranding thousands of people in ports as airlines canceled flights and ferries were prevented from sailing. Officials warned of storm surges in coastal villages, flash floods and landslides, and asked villagers to evacuate to safer grounds. Land, sea and air travel have been suspended in some areas.
Around 218,000 people fled to evacuation centres after authorities warned of storm surges and flooding in coastal villages and low-lying areas.
Christmas is the biggest holiday in the Philippines, which has Asia’s largest Roman Catholic population, making it difficult for officials to get people’s attention to heed warnings. With many refusing to leave high-risk communities, some officials said they decided to carry out forced evacuations.
Villafuerte offered roast pig, a popular Christmas delicacy locally called “lechon”, in evacuation centers to entice villagers to move to emergency shelters.
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