Residents on Luzon Island of the Philippines gear up for Super Typhoon Mangkhut (Photo: CNN) Hanoi (VNA) – Super Typhoon Mangkhut hit Cagayan province on Luzon Island, north of the Philippines, at 1:40 am (local time) on September 15, sustaining wind speeds of over 200km per hour and causing power blackouts in some areas.
Floods, landslides and widespread property destruction were predicted.
Earlier, thousands of people had been evacuated from coastal areas as warnings were issued about possible storm surges of 3 – 6 metres.
Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba said about 36,000 people had been moved to some 500 evacuation centres, but there were still people who resisted because they wanted to guard their houses.
Mangkhut, with maximum gusts of 285km per hour, has a diameter of about 900km and moved at about 35km per hour. It is the 15th storm that has stricken the Philippines this year.
On September 14, the Philippine meteorological agency raised the alert level to Category 4 – the second highest – in coastal Cagayan and Isabela provinces.
This alert level used to be issued for Super Typhoon Haiyan, which caused the heaviest losses to this country. More than 7,300 were killed or went missing when Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013.–VNA
VNA
