725,000 evacuated as Typhoon Melor hits Philippines

About 725,000 people fled their homes as Typhoon Melor slammed into the eastern Philippines, officials said.

Government meteorologists monitor from a satellite image of Typhoon Melor fat the weather bureau center in suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines as it hits the eastern Philippines. Image by AP Photo/Bullit Marquez

Communities were braced for heavy rain and coastal floods of up to 13ft (4m) and school classes, flights and ferry trips were suspended. The government’s weather bureau said the typhoon was packing winds of 95mph (150kph) with gusts of up to 115mph (185kph), and heavy to intense rain within its 185-mile (300km) diameter.

It made landfall on tiny Batag Island in the eastern Philippines on Monday morning, and a second landfall was expected in Sorsogon province. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 724,839 residents of three eastern provinces were evacuated on Sunday and early Monday before the storm’s arrival. The largest numbers of evacuees were in Sorsogon and Albay provinces.

Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines. Image by Alma Gamil / CC BY 2.0

Bernardo Alejandro, a regional civil defence official, said many residents of Sorsogon voluntarily went to shelters on Sunday night, but the provincial governor then ordered evacuations on Monday for residents who had refused to leave their homes despite the risk of floods and landslides. In Albay, about 590,000 residents were evacuated as a precaution, including tens of thousands from around Mount Mayon volcano, where volcanic mudflows are an added threat, the national council said.

Edgar Posadas, a civil defence official in the Eastern Visayas region, said parts of Allen town in Northern Samar province were flooded, and strong winds tore off roofs and felled coconut trees. He said no casualties had been reported even in the northern tip of the province, where the typhoon first made landfall, and that the evacuation of residents and preparedness of local officials had so far proved effective.

About 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines each year. In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall, left more than 7,300 people dead and missing as it levelled entire villages and swept walls of seawater into parts of the central Philippines.

(Press Association)